On January 12, near the Independence Monument in central Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The North Korean embassy appeared just steps away from the bustling street filled with incessant traffic noise. The scene was unexpectedly quiet. Not a soul was in sight, and even as the reporter approached the embassy, hesitating momentarily to take a photo, no one intervened. A security guard, presumably Cambodian police, remained in the guardhouse but took no particular action.
Despite expectations of tighter security due to its location adjacent to former Prime Minister Hun Sen’s residence, the North Korean embassy presented a starkly different picture. In contrast, the Indonesian embassy to its right exhibited a tense atmosphere with security personnel frequently patrolling.
The embassy’s bulletin board displayed seven photographs. Centrally placed was an image of Kim Jong Un (Kim) speaking at the June 2024 completion ceremony of the Party Central Cadres School. Flanking it were photos of Kim Il Sung at a student New Year performance in December 1986 and Kim Jong Il with senior professors from Kim Il Sung University in April 2010.
This arrangement of the three leaders’ photos seems to visually underscore Kim’s status. When Kim attended the school’s completion ceremony, his portrait was unusually displayed alongside those of his predecessors, sparking speculation that North Korea was working to elevate him to the same stature as previous leaders.
Besides the leadership photos, images portraying Pyongyang residents enjoying modernized civilization were also on display. These included pictures of the Munsu Water Park, the renovated Pyongyang subway station, and newly constructed residential areas in the Hwasong district.
However, the presence of a two-year-old photo of the supreme leader was perplexing. Given Kim’s active public engagements this year and North Korea’s frequent promotion of new policies across various domains, including nuclear development and economic issues, the choice to display an older photo raised questions.
Moreover, doubts arose about the embassy’s normal operations. North Korean embassies abroad typically restrict free reporting. Security usually tightens when someone presumed to be South Korean approaches, yet on this day, no notable activity was detected inside the embassy.
North Korea and Cambodia: 62 Years of Diplomatic Ties – Distanced by Sanctions, Reconnecting through Financial Channels?
Cambodia and North Korea’s relationship strengthened after establishing diplomatic ties in 1964, primarily due to personal bonds between former King Norodom Sihanouk and Kim Il Sung. Despite Cambodia’s formal diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1997 under Hun Sen’s leadership, North Korean businesses continued to thrive in Cambodia, maintaining amicable bilateral relations.
However, Cambodia’s stricter enforcement of United Nations (UN) sanctions against North Korea altered this dynamic. Cambodia rigorously implemented UN Security Council Resolution 2397, which mandated the repatriation of North Korean workers within 24 months. Consequently, by December 22, 2019, 115 North Korean workers in Cambodia were compelled to return home.
This led to the closure of all North Korean restaurants in Cambodia. The cessation of people-to-people exchanges naturally cooled bilateral relations. Nevertheless, ceremonial exchanges persisted. North Korea sent congratulations to Prime Minister Hun Manet in 2023, expressing hopes for enhanced cooperation. In December of the same year, Cambodia’s king offered condolences on the 14th anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s death.
Underlying these official interactions, there are allegations of clandestine dealings between Cambodia and North Korea.
A recent report by the Multinational Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), which oversees North Korea’s sanctions violations, revealed that North Korea annually steals cryptocurrency worth trillions of KRW (billions of USD) from various countries’ virtual asset exchanges, subsequently liquidating it in Cambodia and China.
Notably, the Huione Group, a Cambodian financial entity implicated in online scams targeting South Koreans, was designated as a transnational criminal organization by U.S. and U.K. authorities for allegedly facilitating North Korean money laundering. This raises the possibility of covert communication between Cambodian officials and North Korea.
Furthermore, in 2024, Japan’s Nippon TV reported that a diplomat at the North Korean embassy in Cambodia was using the facility to smuggle drone parts into North Korea. This suggests Cambodia might serve as a distribution channel for foreign-made components crucial to North Korea’s advanced weapons development.
If these allegations prove true and Cambodian authorities have indeed turned a blind eye, the North Korea-Cambodia relationship may be more robust than it appears. As North Korea has been focusing on mending ties with Southeast Asian nations since last year, it will be interesting to see if they expand diplomatic initiatives with Cambodia in the coming year.
