Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to ...
. Neither country maintains an embassy in the other, although the DPRK formerly had an ambassador accredited in the Burkinabé capital
Ouagadougou
Ouagadougou ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural, and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 2,415,266 in 2019. The city's ...
.
History
Relations were especially close during the Cold War, when the DPRK was most active in foreign affairs. North Korea provided military equipment to the
army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
of what was then the
Republic of Upper Volta
The Republic of Upper Volta (french: République de Haute-Volta) was a landlocked West African country established on 11 December 1958 as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Before becoming autonomous, it had been part of the ...
in the mid-1970s, during the reign of the military leader Colonel General
Sangoulé Lamizana
Aboubakar Sangoulé Lamizana (31 January 1916 – 26 May 2005) was a Burkinabé military officer who served as the President of Upper Volta (since 1984 renamed Burkina Faso), in power from 3 January 1966, to 25 November 1980. He held the a ...
. North Korea also provided agricultural and technical assistance during the Cold War. Military aid continued under the rule of Captain
Thomas Sankara
Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (; 21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé military officer, Marxist–Leninist revolutionary, and Pan-Africanist, who served as President of Burkina Faso from his coup in 1983 to his deposition a ...
, with an accord signed in 1983. Sankara, a Marxist revolutionary, visited
Pyongyang
Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...
several times, first as Prime Minister on 13 March 1983 and then as President on 3 September 1985. A DPRK–Burkina Faso Friendship Association reportedly existed during this period.
Relations remained close during the early reign of Sankara's successor,
Blaise Compaoré
Blaise Compaoré (born 3 February 1951)''Profiles of People in Power: The World's Government Leaders'' (2003), page 76–77.
, who took power in a 1987 military coup. Compaoré visited Pyongyang in September 1988. In the late 1980s there were several cases of cooperation between the two countries – for example, the DPRK constructed an open-air theatre in
Koudougou
Koudougou is a city in Burkina Faso's Boulkiemdé Province. It is located west of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. With a population of 160,239 (2019) it is the third most populous city in Burkina Faso after Ouagadougou and Bobo Dio ...
, and a trade agreement to exchange Burkinabé cotton and minerals for North Korean agricultural machinery was signed. Diplomatic activity quieted down after the Cold War, but some cooperation continued. In 1998 the North Korean government completed the construction of five small water reservoirs in Burkina Faso.
Straying from the traditional relations, Burkina Faso – a temporary UNSC member at the time – voted in favour of
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874 was adopted unanimously by the United Nations Security Council on 12 June 2009.September 2022 coup d'état, Burkina Faso announced the re-establishment of diplomatic ties with the DPRK, with the latter country naming Chae Hui Chol as the DPRK's ambassador to Burkina Faso.
Trade
In 2016, bilateral trade was worth US$34 million, making Burkina Faso North Korea's seventh largest trading partner.
Foreign relations of North Korea
The foreign relations of North Korea – officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) – have been shaped by its conflict with South Korea and its historical ties with world communism. Both the government of North Korea and th ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkina Faso-North Korea relations
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...