Ugandan has stopped buying weapons from North Korea due to the United Nations various comprehensive arms embargo that prohibits exports and imports to or from North Korea, reports the Daily Monitor.
Uganda was listed among the top five close allies of North Korea by the British Intelligence last year. However the UN embargo has affected those relations with Uganda also halting training of Ugandan Air Force pilots by North Korea.
“Following UN sanctions, we have disengaged with North Korea in areas the UN sanctions apply. But our policy is that no one can choose for us friends. We choose our friends and enemies,” said Uganda’s State Minister for International Relations Okello Oryem
The State Minister was addressing a report by Institute for Security Studies (ISS), a South African-based human security enhancement organization, which stated that African countries have maintained trade and diplomatic and trade relations with North Korea despite the UN sanctions due to the North Korea’s ballistic and nuclear weapons programmes.
Uganda agreed to comply with the UN sanction to stop military cooperation when the President of South Korea visited the East African country last year.
According to the Daily Monitor, the report says that most African states have refrained from “explicitly condemning North Korea’s nuclear weapon- and delivery system-related activities” as a threat to international peace and security, with only South Africa and Egypt consistently proving to be the exception.
