The Romanian Foreign Ministry has published a bill on its website, to ratify the Protocol between the Government of Romania and the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea regarding the bilateral agreements signed in 1956-1989, signed in Pyongyang on January 20, 2011.
The bill aims to clarify the legal status of the 150 agreements signed in that period and create the foundation of an updated legal framework, in accordance with the new political realities.
Negotiations to this end have carried on since 1997. A protocol on the bilateral legal framework in the 1956-1989 period was established that year, but discussions idled for political reasons. Talks were resumed in 2001 and, again, in 2005-2006, given Romania’s accession to the European Union, without result.
At the suggestion of Pyongyang authorities, the two states recommenced talks in 2008, which were finalized in the signing of a Protocol on the bilateral agreements, in the North Korean capital on January 20, 2011. The document included a list of agreements that were to remain in effect, as well as those that would end, and was signed by Ovidiu Liviu Iancu, Romania’s Charge d’Affaires to Pyongyang, and Kim Song Gi, the North Korean Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs.
This summer, the Romanian Government approved an agreement for collaboration “in culture, education, science and sports” with North Korea, signed in Pyongyang on November 18, 2010. The document encouraged “the exchange of writers, composers, painters, singers and instrumentalists,” as well as the holding of “joint cultural events.”
Romania and North Korea established diplomatic relations on October 26, 1948. According to the Foreign Ministry, “until the Revolution of December 1989, political relations evolved under the conditions specific to the Communist regime.”
On December 27, 1989, North Korea recognized the new authorities in Bucharest and the North Korean Red Cross sent Romania humanitarian aid worth $150,000.
Since 1990, bilateral relations have been limited. There have been no visits or high-level political contact. Trade between the two states amounted to $50,000 in 2009.
In 2007, 2008 and 2010, Romania granted scholarships to North Korean students. There are, however, no Romanian citizens residing in North Korea, nor any North Korean residents in Romania.