Lịch sử
quan hệ giữa Việt Nam và Bắc Triều Tiên
August
2, 2013
From
submarines to kindergartens, the two states used to share it all but have since
grown apart
SEOUL – An elite kindergarten in Hanoi is the most
prominent remainder of the once-thriving ties between Vietnam and North Korea,
and even it may be North Korean in name only.
Sharing aspects of the same ideology, the two states
have a history of military cooperation, particularly during the Vietnam War. A
number of bilateral agreements have also been signed, as early as the 1950s and
as late as the early part of last decade. Ties officially continue and visits
between high-level officials are a regularity, but economic ties have halted,
with the vast majority of bilateral agreements expiring and common perceptions
of the North among the Vietnamese growing more and more negative.
When tracing the decline in relations, it appears
that the failure of Pyongyang to pay Vietnam for a large rice shipment in 1996,
along with South Korea’s growing economic clout, have been turning points.
A
SHARED HISTORY
North Korea dispatched approximately 200 fighter
pilots to Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Fourteen North Korean soldiers killed
in Vietnam War battles from 1965 to 1968 have been honored in a mausoleum in
Bac Giang Province. The two Cold War allies also traded weapons and rice other
during this period, and entered into 135 bilateral agreements, starting with
cultural cooperation in 1957, and continuing with sea transportation as late as
2002.
Major General Phan Khac Hy (first row, fourth from
right) was a political commissar of the North Vietnamese Air Force Command. In
the above picture he is seen sitting between the chief and vice chief of
command in the North Korean air force unit in Vietnam.
The DPRK Martyrs’ Cemetery in Bac Giang Province.
Photo: bacgiang.net
But signs of strain go back to at least the year
after Vietnam and South Korea normalized diplomatic relations. In 1993 North
Korea invested $3.5 million in a joint venture managing a silk factory in Hai
Duong, but Vietnam withdrew its involvement the following year. North Korea
sold the factory back to Vietnam in 2001.
Then, in 1996, with the North in the midst of its
devastating famine following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a setback
occurred from which Pyongyang-Hanoi ties have never really recovered: North
Korea failed to pay Vietnam for 20,000 tons of rice, which the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs has valued at $18
million.
Hoping to make amends, Kim Jong Il sent two Yugo
class midget submarines to Vietnam in 1996, and the Vietnamese military still
uses them for training in Cam Ranh Bay. Nonetheless, these gifts did not
prevent an almost complete stoppage in commercial transactions between the two
states. Small private dealers have taken on the trading business ever since,
and the volume of trade is so small that the Vietnam
Customs has never included North Korea in its annual reports on merchandize trade statistics.
Cam Ranh Port, tp. Cam Ranh, Khanh Hoa province,
Vietnam. Photo: Covertshores
Hanoi retained normal diplomatic relations with
Pyongyang, however. At the end of the 1960s North Vietnam would send many
students to North Korea, and the Association of Vietnamese Students Alumni in
North Korea still facilitates visits and exchanges between the two countries.
Vietnam maintained its embassy in Pyongyang and the DPRK-Vietnam Friendship
Association carries out visits between the two countries annually. The
Vietnamese government continually donates thousands of tons of rice to North
Korea and the nations regularly cooperate in arts, sports, and even martial
arts training for state police.
HANOI
KINDERGARTENS
Established in 1965 with North Korean funding, the
Vietnam-DPRK Friendship Kindergarten in Hanoi was designated to “facilitate
mutual understanding” between the two peoples. Starting with 120 students, this
school now has 880 enrolled and is considered one of the best kindergartens in
Hanoi.
The Vietnam-DPRK Friendship Kindergarten
administrators have kept close ties with their Pyongyang counterparts at the
DPRK-Vietnam Friendship Kyongsang Kindergarten. Visits between the two
institutes are always tied with high-level government officers’ meetings. For
example, in 2009, the Vietnamese administrators visited the DPRK to celebrate
the 45th anniversary of the Vietnam-DPRK Friendship Association (1965-2010).
In June 2012, as Kim Il Sung’s 100th birthday was
being celebrated, North Korean representatives of the DPRK-Vietnam Friendship
Association visited the kindergarten in Hanoi with six teachers and 13 students
from Kyongsang. The school received a First Class Friendship Medal from the
DPRK and the First Class Labor Order from Vietnam
On the event of 35th anniversary of Vietnam-DPRK
Friendship Kindergarten in April 2013, the school website wrote:
“The beloved leaders of Vietnam and Korea people,
President Ho Chi Minh and President Kim Il Sung have created the foundation for
a long-lasting relation of cooperation and friendship between the two nations.
This relationship has survived all the challenges of history, and is still
flourishing …”
A North Korean-ran kindergarten in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Photo: unknown.
But official propaganda has not stopped popular
perceptions of North Korea from turning negative. Rather than a “socialist
brother,” the Western-media-influenced Vietnamese public now view it as an
aggressive and irrational state. Kim Joo-il, former North Korean military
captain in an interview with BBC commented that in Pyongyang, he had been
educated that Vietnam was a friend of his country.
However, after escaping to China and Vietnam in
2005, Kim realized that the reality was completely different, and that only
China still remained its relation with North Korea to a certain extent.
In Vietnam today, the most influential online
Internet news agencies – and thus the most prone to state censorship – such as Vnexpress.net and dantri.com usually mention North Korea in a very cautious
and neutral manner. But in unofficial channels such as personal blogs
and social media, forums
and smaller private online magazines, a clear distaste for the North Korean
regime is much easier to spot, regardless of the writers’ background.
The DPRK-Vietnam Friendship Kindergarten has a very
good reputation locally for its facility and education quality, but there is no
mention whatsoever of North Korea in the curriculum. Ironically for a school
designed to celebrate relations between states espousing Marxist ideology, it
is now one of the most elitist kindergartens in the country, and as a forum for young mothers in Hanoi revealed, unless one has
some “inside connections,” their kids will likely not be accepted.
BETWEEN
NORTH AND SOUTH
Key to the decline in Vietnam’s relations with the
North, and the change in how the North is perceived there, has been the rise of
the South Korean economy and the decline in the North’s influence.
South Korea is now the biggest investor in Vietnam with a total foreign direct
investment of 10.33 billion. The South also remains a crucial market for a
variety of Vietnamese products and shows a continuing increase in trade values,
according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade. The two countries also
initiated research and negotiations on a bilateral FTA in 2010. In
contrast to the stagnant economic activities with the North, Vietnam enjoys a
dynamic economic boost when cooperating with the South.
And with North Korea’s downward slide, the defectors
issue has created new headaches for Asian nations such as Vietnam who attempt
to maintain ties with both sides of the DMZ.
An October 2006 publication by the International Crisis Group pointed to
Vietnam as a major point in the “southern route to South East Asia” for North
Korean defectors. This itinerary via Vietnam has grown in popularity due to the
increasing risk along the China route and the fact that it is a rarity in
Southeast Asia in that it has more plains than mountains. The fact that South
Koreans ran four large safe houses in Vietnam is another factor attracting
defectors.
However, this changed in July 2004, when the South
Korean government sent a flight to Vietnam to fetch 468 defectors. Thereafter,
Vietnam has tightened border controls to avoid a falling out with the North,
yet the destination has never been fully discarded.
“The Korean government had high expectations about
Vietnam’s future role in bringing reform and openness to North Korea” upon the
normalization between South Korea and Vietnam in 1992, academic and former
South Korean diplomat Park Joon-woo said in March 2012. In addition to keeping
regular contacts with North Korea, Vietnam also enjoys “a unique position” in
contributing to the reunification of the Korean Peninsula due to its history as
a divided nation during the Cold War. Park states that “Vietnam could offer
itself as one of the best models” once North Korea starts to open up.
It seems that the hopes Seoul entrusted in Hanoi
have been a bit too high. After the tension generated by the unpaid-for rice in
1996, Hanoi and Pyongyang no longer maintain tight economic relations. Other
cooperation mostly stopped at the level of maintaining a diplomatic protocol. In
the years since 2004, when South Korea took hundreds of North Korean refugees
from Vietnam to Seoul, Vietnam has been especially cautious to avoid the risk
of having to publicly choose between Pyongyang and Seoul. However, “as the
Vietnamese economy becomes more open, there are growing reasons for Hanoi to
side quietly with Seoul on the refugee issue rather than Pyongyang,” the
International Crisis Group said in 2006.
Such an assumption is not groundless, regarding the
fast-growing cooperation between Vietnam and South Korea lately, especially in
terms of trade and commerce. If Vietnam wishes to continue its impressive
growth over the last decade, it is likely that Hanoi will lean toward its
popular and promising Southern trading partner in foreign affairs, rather than
its unreliable former comrade in the North.
Editing by Rob York. Headline image: NK News.
-------------------------------
Pham Thi Thu Thuy is a native of Vietnam and student at Seoul’s Yonsei
University where she specializes in North Korean affairs.
No comments:
Post a Comment