# Somalia and North Korea

> Somalia and North Korea: relations since 1967, Siad Barre's visit, the joint 1991 escape from Mogadishu, and UN sanctions panel findings.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/relations/north-korea/
Last checked: 2026-11-13
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## How do Somalia and North Korea relate today?

Relations exist on paper. The US-based National Committee on North Korea lists Somalia among North Korea's diplomatic partners, with ties dating from 13 April 1967 ([NCNK, DPRK Diplomatic Relations](https://www.ncnk.org/resources/briefing-papers/all-briefing-papers/dprk-diplomatic-relations)). Neither country has a resident embassy in the other's capital today; North Korea's diplomats left Mogadishu in January 1991 ([Korea Herald, 12 August 2021](https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2670114)).

Somalia is bound by the UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea. The UN panel that monitors those sanctions has listed Somalia among countries that had not filed national implementation reports ([UN Panel of Experts, S/2017/150](https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=S/2017/150&l=en&t=pdf); [S/2024/215](https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=S/2024/215&l=en&t=pdf)).

## When did contact begin?

North Korea and Somalia set up relations on 13 April 1967, under the civilian government in Mogadishu ([NCNK](https://www.ncnk.org/resources/briefing-papers/all-briefing-papers/dprk-diplomatic-relations)). It was part of a wave of North Korean ties with newly independent African and Asian states in the 1960s ([NCNK](https://www.ncnk.org/resources/briefing-papers/all-briefing-papers/dprk-diplomatic-relations)).

After the 1969 coup, President Siad Barre visited Pyongyang. A US government study of July 1973 dates the visit to May 1972 and says close relations followed ([US State Department, FRUS 1969–1976, vol. E-6, doc. 91](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d91)). Wikipedia, citing published histories, gives 1971 and says Barre signed an agreement on technical and economic help with Kim Il Sung ([Wikipedia, North Korea–Somalia relations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%E2%80%93Somalia_relations)).

The 1973 US study records that North Korea trained Somali guerrillas in North Korea, even before the visit ([FRUS, doc. 91](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d91)). In July 1972 Somalia's defence minister agreed with Pyongyang to cut the training from six to four months so that more men could be trained ([FRUS, doc. 91](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d91)). By June 1973 at least 175 Somalis had come home from this training and were teaching others in camps in Somalia ([FRUS, doc. 91](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d91)).

The same study says North Korea publicly backed the "unification" of the Somali territories in joint communiqués ([FRUS, doc. 91](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d91)). In September 1975 the US embassy in Mogadishu listed North Koreans among the East Germans, Cubans, Czechs and Bulgarians helping with Somalia's socialist programmes ([US Embassy Mogadishu telegram, 3 September 1975, FRUS doc. 145](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d145)).

When the Soviet bloc moved to back Ethiopia's Derg in the 1977 Ogaden War, North Korea also sent military aid to Ethiopia ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%E2%80%93Somalia_relations)).

## Who are the ambassadors and envoys?

- **Kim Ryong-su** was North Korea's ambassador in Mogadishu when the city fell into fighting at the end of 1990 ([Korea Herald, 2021](https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2670114)).

No later resident North Korean ambassador to Somalia appears in the sources found. Somalia has no embassy in Pyongyang.

## Who built the tie?

- **Siad Barre**, President of Somalia, visited Pyongyang in May 1972 according to a US study, or 1971 according to Wikipedia ([FRUS, doc. 91](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d91); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%E2%80%93Somalia_relations)).
- **Somalia's defence minister** (unnamed in the record) agreed in July 1972 to speed up guerrilla training in North Korea ([FRUS, doc. 91](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d91)).
- **Abdullahi Addou**, Somalia's ambassador in Washington, told US officials in November 1975 that Somalia's vote for a resolution on Korea that the US opposed reflected earlier commitments ([State Department telegram, 22 November 1975, FRUS doc. 152](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d152)).
- **Kim Il Sung**, leader of North Korea, signed the 1971 cooperation agreement with Barre ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%E2%80%93Somalia_relations)).
- **Kim Ryong-su**, North Korean ambassador, led his staff out of Mogadishu with South Korean diplomats in January 1991 ([Korea Herald, 2021](https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2670114)).
- **Kang Shin-sung**, South Korea's ambassador, sheltered the North Koreans in his residence and arranged their escape ([Korea Herald, 2021](https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2670114)).

## What agreements have they signed?

- **1971 or 1972:** agreement on technical and economic assistance, signed in Pyongyang ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%E2%80%93Somalia_relations)).
- **July 1972:** arrangement to shorten training of Somali guerrillas in North Korea ([FRUS, doc. 91](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d91)).

No other bilateral agreement appears in the sources found.

## Which leaders have visited?

- **May 1972 (US record) or 1971 (Wikipedia):** President Siad Barre to Pyongyang ([FRUS, doc. 91](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d91); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%E2%80%93Somalia_relations)).

## How did North Korea's embassy leave Mogadishu?

When fighting reached Mogadishu at the end of 1990, North Korean diplomats were stranded. Fourteen North Koreans, four of them children, moved into the South Korean ambassador's residence ([Korea Herald, 2021](https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2670114)). One North Korean diplomat was shot by government forces and died at the Italian embassy ([Korea Herald, 2021](https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2670114)).

On 12 January 1991, 13 North Koreans and six South Koreans flew out on a Red Cross plane and Italian military aircraft ([Korea Herald, 2021](https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2670114)). In Mombasa, Kenya, the North Korean ambassador asked to part from the South Koreans ([Korea Herald, 2021](https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2670114)). The 2021 South Korean film "Escape from Mogadishu" tells this story ([Korea Herald, 2021](https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2670114)).

## How much do they trade?

UN Comtrade holds no records of trade between the two for 2019 to 2024 ([UN Comtrade, Somalia–North Korea 2022](https://comtradeapi.un.org/public/v1/preview/C/A/HS?reporterCode=706&partnerCode=408&period=2022&flowCode=X,M&cmdCode=TOTAL)). Neither country files its own trade figures with the database for those years.

## What about security?

On 17 February 2020 [Al-Shabaab](/en/history/al-shabaab/) fired four 60 mm mortar rounds towards the UN compound at [Aden Adde International Airport](/en/infrastructure/aden-adde-international-airport/) in Mogadishu ([UN Panel of Experts on Somalia, S/2020/949](https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=S/2020/949&l=en&t=pdf)). One unexploded round had features "consistent with a 60-mm HE type 63 mortar round, manufactured in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea" ([S/2020/949](https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=S/2020/949&l=en&t=pdf)).

The North Korea sanctions panel took up this finding in 2021 and asked Somalia for clarification ([UN Panel of Experts on DPRK, S/2021/211](https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=S/2021/211&l=en&t=pdf)). In 2022 it said it was still looking into "possible arms exports" from North Korea to Somalia and had not received a reply ([S/2022/132](https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=S/2022/132&l=en&t=pdf)). See [Foreign forces in Somalia](/en/institutions/foreign-forces-in-somalia/) and [UN arms embargo, 1992 to 2023](/en/history/un-arms-embargo-1992-2023/).

## How does North Korea deal with Somaliland and the member states?

No North Korean contact with [Somaliland](/en/states/somaliland-1991-to-2026/) or the federal member states appears in the sources found.

## Have there been disputes?

No public dispute between the two governments is on record. The open matter is the UN panel's 2021 and 2022 request to Somalia about the mortar round, which the panel said was unanswered ([S/2022/132](https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=S/2022/132&l=en&t=pdf)).

## Where does North Korea stand in the UN and other bodies on Somalia?

In 1975 Somalia supported a General Assembly resolution on Korea that the United States opposed. Ambassador Addou said Somalia's UN representative spoke in moderate terms despite "heavy pressure from North Korean and other communist delegations" ([FRUS, doc. 152](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve06/d152)).

The UN Security Council has kept sanctions on North Korea since 2006, and all members, Somalia included, must report how they apply them. The panel listed Somalia among states yet to submit reports under resolution 2270 (2016) in 2017, and under resolution 2397 (2017) in 2019 and 2020 ([S/2017/150](https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=S/2017/150&l=en&t=pdf); [S/2019/171](https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=S/2019/171&l=en&t=pdf); [S/2020/840](https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=S/2020/840&l=en&t=pdf)). In 2024 Somalia was one of 62 states the panel wrote to about missing reports ([S/2024/215](https://documents.un.org/api/symbol/access?s=S/2024/215&l=en&t=pdf)).

## Related pages

- [Somalia and South Korea](/en/relations/south-korea/)
- [Siad Barre](/en/people/siad-barre/)
- [Siad Barre era, 1969 to 1991](/en/history/siad-barre-era-1969-1991/)
- [Ogaden War, 1977](/en/history/ogaden-war-1977/)
- [Somali armed forces, 1960 to 1991](/en/history/somali-armed-forces-1960-1991/)
- [UN arms embargo, 1992 to 2023](/en/history/un-arms-embargo-1992-2023/)

---
I want to help with this: email hello@calankii.com. Fix this page: email hello@calankii.com with the page link and your source.