North Korea and Romania’s Development of Visit Diplomacy (1971-1988): Discrepancies between Ideology and Reality

Relations between North Korea and Romania lasted from the early 1950s to the end of the 1980s and formed a unique relationship, which distinguished itself from other Eastern European countries. The relationship is based on the fact that since the 1960s, the two countries have been known as ‘weak countries’ in the socialist camp. Despite the risks, they chose to pursue an independent diplomatic route against the Soviet Union’s policy. In other words, they tried to maintain a foreign policy that was in their own interests unlike other socialist countries which unconditionally obeyed the Soviets. However, the relationship between the two countries froze between 1967 and 1969. One of the reasons was that North Korea’s national policies were thoroughly based on ideology, compared to Romania’s free diplomatic relations with capitalist countries. It may be said that in the beginning, North Korea have found it difficult to accept Romania’s free way of doing diplomacy. At last, the relationship between the two countries began to recover in 1970, when Kim Il-sung decided to make use of Romania’s relation with capitalist partners. Thus, in order to validate their strong relation, Kim Il-sung and Ceausescu engaged into eight mutual visits between 1971 and 1988. On the one hand, from North Korea’s standpoint, the economic benefits that were sought through Romania were not substantially achieved. However, the political significance can be found in the matter that through Romania, North Korea gained unconditional support and advocacy for its system on the international stage. On the other hand, Romania’s economic, military cooperation and exchanges with North Korea did not bring any significant benefit. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that after the mid-1970s, Ceausescu’s personal preference for Kim Il-sung has been expanded towards the North Korean system itself. This happened due to Ceausescu’s gradual weakening of domestic influence since the mid-1970s. As a consequence, it led to his personal desire to have the power secured by gradually making the Romanian system a dictatorship centered on ideological ideas similar to North Korea’s. In this regard, this paper also examines Ceausescu’s last three visits to North Korea, before his downfall in 1989.