Cambodia–North Korea relations (; ) refers to the bilateral relationship between

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

and

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 Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

(DPRK). The DPRK has an embassy in

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Cambodia, most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since 1865 and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its political, economic, industr ...

; Cambodia has an embassy in

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

. The North Korean embassy is located on

Sihanouk Boulevard Sihanouk Boulevard () is a central boulevard of Phnom Penh which is the capital of Cambodia. The boulevard crosses the city in an east–west direction. It is named in honour of the late King Norodom Sihanouk, one of the country's greatest kings. ...

, Phnom Penh, directly adjacent to the Prime Minister's (

Hun Sen Samdech Hun Sen (; , Romanization of Khmer#UNGEGN, UNGEGN: ; born 5 August 1952) is a Cambodian politician and former military officer who currently serves as the List of presidents of the Senate (Cambodia), president of the Senate. He previous ...

) residence.

History

The relationship started in 1965 when Cambodia's

Norodom Sihanouk Norodom Sihanouk (; 31 October 192215 October 2012) was a member of the House of Norodom, Cambodian royal house who led the country as Monarchy of Cambodia, King, List of heads of state of Cambodia, Chief of State and Prime Minister of Cambodi ...

met

Kim Il Sung Kim Il Sung (born Kim Song Ju; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he led as its first Supreme Leader (North Korean title), supreme leader from North Korea#Founding, its establishm ...

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. After Sihanouk was toppled in 1970, the DPRK continued to support his government in exile. In 1974, the DPRK built a palace for Sihanouk near Pyongyang called Changsuwon Palace. When the

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and by extension to Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by Norodom Sihano ...

was removed by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979, the DPRK supported Sihanouk in a new exile government as well as the Khmer Rouge against Vietnam. He regularly resided in the DPRK until 1991 when he became King of Cambodia. When he returned to Cambodia as King, he took a bodyguard of DPRK individuals. Cambodia has been suggested as an intermediary between North Korea and South Korea. A DPRK trade delegation visited Cambodia in 2011.

Trade

Cambodia and the DPRK have a small relationship in relation to trade. One major investment by the DPRK in Cambodia is the construction and management of the Angkor Paranoma Museum in

Siem Reap Siem Reap (, ) is the second-largest city of Cambodia, as well as the capital and largest city of Siem Reap Province in northwestern Cambodia. Siem Reap possesses French-colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old French Quarter ...

, which celebrates the ancient

Angkor empire The Khmer Empire was an empire in Southeast Asia, centered on hydraulic cities in what is now northern Cambodia. Known as Kambuja (; ) by its inhabitants, it grew out of the former civilization of Chenla and lasted from 802 to 1431. Historian ...

, with the DPRK receiving profits from the museum for the first decade and the second decade, profits would be split between Cambodia and North Korea.Jack Board
"The curious case of North Korea in Cambodia"
,

Channel News Asia CNA (an initialism of Channel NewsAsia) is a Singapore-based multinational news channel owned by Mediacorp, the country's state-owned media conglomerate. The network is broadcast in Singapore on free-to-air terrestrial television and Mediacorp ...

, 23 April 2017. The DPRK also has patriotic restaurants within the country, performances, and a strong diplomatic presence in the country.Daniel Otis
"Dining With Dear Leader"
''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'', 22 November 2013.

History

Trade

References

Further reading