<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"><FONT BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">Has anyone done any work on North Korean aid<BR>
to Africa, or know anyone who has?<BR>
<BR>
In the 1970s and 1980s the DPRK had embassies<BR>
all over the continent. Aid projects in a range of <BR>
countries - Guinea, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and many more -<BR>
ranged from the practical and useful (agriculture, construction)<BR>
to the more dubious (military training, organizing mass games,<BR>
building statues). It must have cost Pyongyang a fortune. Most of <BR>
the embassies have shut, but a little of this may still continue.<BR>
<BR>
We think now of North Korea as an aid recipient.<BR>
It used to be a donor also. This chapter in the heyday of<BR>
tricontinental solidarity is now history, but should not go<BR>
unrecorded. It would make a fascinating PhD topic,<BR>
either in general or for particular countries.<BR>
One model could be Philip Snow's <I>The Star Raft</I>,<BR>
which looks at China's encounter with Africa.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER<BR>
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University <BR>
17 Birklands Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3BY, UK <BR>
tel: +44(0) 1274 588586 mobile: +44(0) 7970 741307 <BR>
fax: +44(0) 1274 773663 ISDN: +44(0) 1274 589280<BR>
Email: afostercarter@aol.com website: www.aidanfc.net<BR>
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