Nigeria Reopens Embassy In North Korea After COVID-19 Closure

Nigeria has reopened its embassy in Pyongyang, North Korea, following years of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

With the embassy’s reopening, Nigeria has become the second African nation, following Egypt, to maintain a diplomatic presence in North Korea.

According to NK News, while the embassy was closed, Nigeria and North Korea continued diplomatic ties through Nigeria’s mission in Abuja.

Nigeria’s charge d’affaires, Patrick Imodu Imologhome disclosed a plan for the embassy’s reopening at a meeting in Pyongyang last Wednesday with Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexandr Matsegora, the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang wrote on its Facebook account last Thursday.

Imologhome, who had arrived in North Korea, shared his plans to reopen the Nigerian Embassy in Pyongyang after a long suspension caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.

Russia’s embassy in Pyongyang said in a Telegram message in early December that representatives from diplomatic corps from countries, including Nigeria and India, attended an event to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

North Korea and Nigeria established diplomatic ties in 1976 and both have maintained diplomatic relations despite the closure of Nigeria’s embassy.

According to reports, North Korea’s ambassador to Nigeria, Jon Tong Chol, has remained in Abuja throughout the pandemic.

Since his appointment in 2018, Ambassador Jon has been involved in diplomatic exchanges with Nigeria, though the details of their discussions have generally not been disclosed to the public.

North Korea shut down its border in early 2020 over the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing foreign diplomats or field workers at international organisations to withdraw from the isolated country. In August 2023, the North began reopening its border.

Only Nigeria and Egypt have diplomatic presence in North Korea out of all other African countries.

Eight countries including China, Laos, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cuba, Russia, Syria, and Egypt had been running their diplomatic missions in Pyongyang in a limited manner even amid the pandemic by leaving some embassy staff behind, according to South Korea’s unification ministry.