An attempt by North Korea to establish a diplomatic mission in Nairobi has been turned down.
The rebuff projects the view that Kenya does not want to be seen to be warming up to the world’s pariah state.
Diplomatic
sources within the United Nations Office in Nairobi have indicated that
the UN mounted pressure on Nairobi to reject the move by North Koreans,
despite officials from that country visiting Nairobi twice.
On
Sunday though, the government denied that North Korea, formally known
as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), has made the
application.
“That is not true. North Korea did not make such a request,” Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho said.
However, sources claims the UN says two delegations came to Nairobi in November
last year and in early March, seeking favours and, hopefully, start a
process of establishing a diplomatic post in Nairobi.
North Korea has been a pariah state for some time, given its
nuclear weapons programme and global concerns over its human rights
record.
In February 2014, the UN Commission of Inquiry
on Human Rights in North Korea released a report in which it gave
horrendous details of crimes against humanity.
The UN
experts documented torture, extrajudicial executions, starvation and
mass imprisonments, before recommending that North Korea’s leaders be
charged at the International Criminal Court.
North Korea called the findings a “fuss” but the UN has recommended an imposition of targeted sanctions on Pyongyang.
The
UN findings had been preceded by a report by the International Network
for the Human Rights of North Korean Overseas Labour which found out a
national policy in Pyongyang of sending its nationals to work menial
jobs but whose salary was paid to the government.
