Go to contents

U.S.-Cuba détente leaves North Korea alone

Posted December. 19, 2014 05:36,   

한국어

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday declared an end to 53-year-long hostility with Cuba, saying that the United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba. The speech was broadcast live throughout the world.

At the same time, Cuban President Raúl Castro, who took over power from his brother Fidel Castro, appeared on state-run television, saying that he and Obama had discussed over telephone ways to normalize bilateral relations.

Obama’s declaration of plans to rebuild its relationship with Cuba that was severed in 1961, when the Communist Party came to power in the Caribbean country, has left North Korea remaining as the only communist state without diplomatic ties with the U.S. Washington’s détente with Havana, which had long fought against the U.S. together with Pyongyang while maintaining its dictatorial regime, will likely give the North a tremendous sense of loss.

Some experts expect that Obama, who is seeking to make his diplomatic legacies with just two years left in his term in office, might seek dialogue with the North after Iran and Cuba. Obama remarked that Washington’s policy of isolating Cuba only gave the Castro government an excuse to constrain its people. The same logic is often cited in the controversies over the effectiveness of sanctions on Pyongyang.