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 Albania |  North Korea |
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Diplomatic relations betweenAlbania andNorth Korea were established on November 28, 1948,[1] over one and a half months after the DPRK was proclaimed. The communist governments ofEnver Hoxha andKim Il Sung were often compared for their similarities in their diplomatic isolation andStalinist-style regimes.[2]
During theKorean War,North Korea and theKorean People's Army were supported diplomatically by Albania. There were articles in which North Korea criticized Tito's Yugoslavia and took a side with Albania during the Korean War. From 29 June to 1 July 1956,First Secretary of the Party of Labour of AlbaniaEnver Hoxha hosted PremierKim Il Sung inTirana on astate visit.[3][4][5][6] On 6 June 1959, Hoxha and Prime MinisterMehmet Shehu receivedChairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly (head of state)Choe Yong-gon on an official goodwill visit. In 1961, Albania and North Korea signed a joint declaration of friendship.[7]
According to Charles Armstrong, Albania was a “litmus test” for determining North Korea’s position in theSino-Soviet split.[8] During theSino-Soviet split, North Korea took a neutral position while Albania supported the Chinese, contributing to the deterioration of relations. This had an effect on Albanian-Korean contacts, with the Albanian ambassador claiming in October 1961 that Premier Kim during acongress meeting inMoscow "could and should have had more contacts with our delegation" and that "he was afraid of being noticed by the Soviets.” That month, the Albanian embassy to Pyongyang was allowed to spread anti-Soviet pamphlets after prior consultations with the North Korean government. At a WPK general meeting in March 1962, Premier Kim admitted that “we (North Korea) must prepare for the contingency that the Soviet Union will cast us aside in the same way as it happened to Albania.”[8]
In the 1970s, relations between the two nations deteriorated, with Hoxha writing in June 1977 that theKorean Workers' Party had betrayed communism by accepting foreign aid (particularly between theEastern Bloc and countries such asYugoslavia). His condemnation of the DPRK contributed to the development of his own ideology ofHoxhaism, which labeled countries like North Korea as "revisionist". He also slammed Kim'scult of personality, which he claimed "has reached a level unheard of anywhere else, either in past or present times, let alone in a country which calls itself socialist."[9][10] As a result, relations between the two nations would continue to remain frosty until the 1985 death of Hoxha and the subsequent fall of thePeople's Socialist Republic he created.[citation needed]
Relations are almost non-existent after 1990, due to Albania establishing stronger relations with South Korea. In November 2012, on the occasion of the100th Anniversary of the Independence of Albania, North Koreanhead of stateKim Yong-nam sent a congratulatory message to Albanian PresidentBujar Nishani.[2] Today, North Korea is represented in Albania by its embassy inSofia, Bulgaria.[11]
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