North Korea is shutting embassies

The Agostinho Neto Mausoleum, a brutalist multipronged spear taller than the Statue of Liberty, looms over Luanda, the capital of Angola. Built by a North Korean construction firm, the concrete monument is a reminder of the two countries’ historic ties. Some 3,000 North Korean troops fought in the terrible civil war that engulfed Angola in the 1970s and 80s. In North Korea’s version of history, Neto, Angola’s first president, learned the ways of anti-colonial struggle from the North Korean supreme leader, Kim Il Sung.Yet on October 27th North Korea closed its embassy in Luanda. Its missions in Uganda, Spain and Hong Kong are also being shut down. According to the , a Japanese newspaper, more than a dozen North Korean embassies in all, about a quarter of the total, could soon close. The country’s foreign ministry says this is a routine reshuffling of resources designed to promote North Korea’s “national interests” in a changing world. Yet the closures point to two big shifts.