Brazil: The New Venezuela?
Is Brazil Joining the Axis of Evil? I’d be skeptical if anyone less than Bertil Lintner had written this, but Lintner has a well established history of finding out some rather amazing things that no one else can:
Recent indications are that Pyongyang has sought willing trade partners outside of Asia and its new closest commercial ally appears to be Brazil. Relations between the two countries have warmed considerably since leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva became president in January 2003.
The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported in October 2004 that North Korea planned to open an embassy in Brasilia, its fourth in the Latin and South American region after Havana, Cuba, Lima, Peru and Mexico City. On May 23, 2006, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and the Brazilian media reported that the two countries had signed a trade agreement.
More recently, the KCNA reported last December that a “protocol on the amendment to the trade agreement” had been signed in the capital Pyongyang. “Present at the signing ceremony from the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea] side were Ri Ryong Nam, minister of foreign trade, and officials concerned and from the Brazilian side Arnaldo Carrilho, Brazilian ambassador to the DPRK, and embassy officials,” according to the news report.
China’s role in facilitating trade between Brazil and North Korea remains a matter of conjecture, but it is significant that the state mouthpiece Xinhua has eagerly reported on the warming of relations between the two countries. China remains Pyongyang’s most important base for all kinds of foreign trade – legitimate as well as more convoluted business transactions through front companies in Beijing and elsewhere. [Bertil Lintner, Asia Times]
Why Brazil? According to Lintner, it has its own nuclear ambitions, and so far, it’s not on any international sanctions lists. Worse, it’s also partnering up with Iran. Brazil also shares a part of the notorious tri-border area, which has become notorious for money laundering and terrorist financing. I can’t imagine that Lula’s rise to power has improved Brazil’s cooperation in this area, either.
Have you ever thought about rooting for North Korea in the World Cup? Here’s my take, you should write a blog about it.
I don’t know, do those players deserve the glory and prestige? (Could they even pull off another 1966 and make it to the quarter finals or better?) Could it focus more attention from the world on this reclusive ‘workers’ paradise’ All important questions. All raise good pionts I think. Of course it would work in favor back home too, a propaganda gold mine, a wet dream for Kim Jung-Il. Publicly rooting for them might be taken the wrong way if not explained as support for a cause, for the people inside the country, not the government itself. I’ll consider rooting for them. Then there’s the question of who the athletes are. Pyongyang elite? Do they scout the countryside for talent in the DPRK? Surely they don’t have a high school sports circuit. I have so much to ask about that country. In any case, the focus and exposure the country and situation in the homeland would receive is immense. If they manage to make it past some of the more well-respected and talented nations, North Korea will be in the headlines and this time there will be room for attention paid to the human condition in the country.
Jason,
I find myself rooting for Chollima passively as well, hoping that if they do well that they might get some preferential treatment for themselves and their families in their homeland. I must admit the ‘media attention to the NK human rights holocaust’ idea had not crossed my mind and is indeed an interesting angle.
With that being said, North Korea is in Group G, AKA “The Group of Death.” They have to compete with Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast. Ivory Coast lost their captain and best striker Drogba to injury earlier, but Brazil and Portugal (mainly Brazil) are still powerhouses that will probably do horrible things to the North Korean soccer team.
Combine that with a calculated risk by the North Korean coaching staff which backfired. Kim Myong-won, one of their best strikers, now can only play in goal.
So, long story short, root for them all you want, odds are they’re gonna get demolished.
I just wonder what Brazil’s trading for. Assuming it isn’t arms, nuclear components, counterfeit U.S. banknotes, or slave labor, what resource does DPRK have that Brazil (a) would need to trade for, and (b) couldn’t acquire much more easily from some other nation?