[ndlr] Rapide survol des relations entre la Corée du Nord et le Viêt-Nam, rédigé par le chercheur Yoo Kang-moon et publié dans The Hankyoreh, un journal indépendant .

Special relationship between two countries put into spotlight ahead of 2nd N. Korea-US summit.

Vietnam, the host country for the upcoming second North Korea-US summit on Feb. 27–28, is a very special country to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Not only is Kim keenly interested in the Vietnamese models of reform and openness, but during the Vietnam War, North Korea formed a relationship with the country to equal its ties to China under Kim’s grandfather Kim Il-sung.

At the height of the Vietnam War between 1964 and 1969, North Korea provided military supplies and deployed its air force to North Vietnam, led at the time by Ho Chi Minh. China also provided weapons and engineers around the same time. With South Korea contributing its own forces to support South Vietnam as a US ally, the situation amounted to a “second war” pitting South Korea and the US against China and North Korea in Vietnam. The historical significance of the Vietnam War appears poised to enter the spotlight once again if the four parties end up holding discussions on a quadrilateral declaration ending the Korean War at the second North Korea-US summit.

North Korea refers to its troops who fought in the Vietnam War as “volunteers” – just as China described its People’s Army troops who fought in the Korean War. In 2002, the remains of North Korean volunteers who died in the Vietnam were returned to the North and laid to rest at the Korean People’s Army Heroic Martyrs’ Cemetery. Tombstones for them can still be found in Bac Giang Province near Hanoi.

Lire la suite : The Hankyoreh, 08/02/2019.

Image “à la une” : L’ancien dirigeant nord-coréen Kim Il-sung serre la main du président Hô Chi Minh lors de sa visite en RDVN en novembre 1958 © DR