BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Nov 24, 2001.BBC News Online
Mexico City, 23 November: The opening of South Korea's relations with Cuba
is likely to be delayed for an indefinite period due to Seoul's wariness of
upsetting the United States. "The Havana government has suddenly expressed
difficulties in exchanging trade representatives with us," said a Korean
government official Friday [23 November] who recently visited Havana to sound
out the prospects of diplomatic relations.
"The Cuban government seems to have backed away from its previous
stance," the official said.
The official recalled that the Western media said current conditions could
act as a possible turning point for the lifting of US economic sanctions on
Havana with an American company to extend medical and food aid to Cuba, albeit
on an one-off basis, when the country was hit by a hurricane recently.
Most nations have opened diplomatic relations with Cuba and it is feared
Korea may lose a promising market by paying too much attention to what the US
does, the official said. With the opening of relations with New Zealand last
week, Cuba currently has diplomatic relations with 131 nations, with 99
countries establishing embassies in the Cuban capital.
South Korea is one of the four remaining nations yet to establish formal
relations with Cuba. Until April last year, when nonaligned summit talks were
held in Havana, the Cuban government responded positively to South Korea's hopes
for positioning trade representatives in each other's capital as a measure prior
to the eventual opening of diplomatic relations.
But the Korean government appears to have missed the chance by dragging its
feet, analysing the possible US response and arguing over the future status of
Korean officials there. At that time, Sun Joun-yung, Korean ambassador to the
United Nations, who attended the Havana conference, said: "The prospect for
the opening of diplomatic relations (between Seoul and Havana) is not dim.
"Prior to the opening of their diplomatic relations, Korea and Cuba
might be able to discuss the opening of an office of the Korea Trade-Investment
Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in Havana," he said.
Sun joined the meeting at the invitation, the first of its kind, of the
Cuban government.
National Assembly Speaker Lee Man-sup also had a positive outlook for the
opening of diplomatic relations after attending a meeting of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union in April last year.
"I heard affirmative talk on the opening of a KOTRA office," Lee
said after meeting Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.
"I received the impression that the Cuban government is keener (than
the Korean government) to open the office," he said...
Source: Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 0143 gmt 24 Nov 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC. | 
