>Ethiopia under Mengistu Haili Miriam was one of the most significant of the Marxist-Leninist experiments in Africa, and one of North Korea’s most active African partners in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After the 1974 overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassi, Mengistu approached the Americans for support; rebuffed, he turned to Moscow in January 1975. The Soviets gave generously: Ethiopia was the most important Soviet-led intervention outside Europe until Afghanistan in 1979, the largest foreign assistance program the USSR had undertaken since China in the 1950s, and the largest socialist multilateral aid project since the reconstruction of North Korea after the Korean War. China itself was conspicuously absent in Ethiopia, focusing on other parts of Africa and leaving the reconstruction of Ethiopia to the USSR and its close allies. Cuba played a particularly active role, sending 11,600 soldiers and 1,000 advisors. East Germany was also a leading source of military and economic aid to the Mengistu regime. North Korea’s highly visible presence in Ethiopia during the Mengistu period is rather ironic, as Ethiopia under the old regime had participated in the Korean War on the South Korean side. Kim Il Sung commented to GDR leader Erich Honecker in 1984 that “w e have agricultural specialists in nearly all African countries,” and that “Ethiopia has obviously achieved the highest level of consolidation of a Marxist party” in Africa.
>North Korea’s decision to send military advisors, engineers, and agricultural experts was almost a mirror-image of its role as an aid recipient after the Korean War, and perhaps that was a conscious motivation. Just as the Soviets helped rebuild Pyongyang and the East Germans Hamhung, 51 so the North Koreans helped to reconstruct Addis Ababa as a “socialist” city. One unique skill the North Koreans had was in staging parades and “mass games,” which they taught the Ethiopians to perform for the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the revolution in September 1984. Another of their projects was the “Victory Monument” in front of the main hospital in Addis Ababa.
>North Korea sent around 500 advisors to Ethiopia from 1977, mostly in the military field to train in anti-guerilla tactics and for fighting Somalia (which by now had switched to a pro-American position). Agricultural advisors were also sent, whose projects included an attempt to plant rice in the south of the country, an experiment that utterly failed. Mengistu him self visited Pyongyang twice and was deeply impressed by what he saw there, so much so that he made his citizens sport North Korean-style uniforms.
>According to my interviews with Assefe Medhanie, formerly in charge of foreign affairs for the Ethiopian Workers’ Party, the Mengistu regime sought “loose solidarity under the umbrella of the Soviet Union,” and turned to several socialist countries for support. The Chinese were not forthcoming with the kind of weaponry and aid they wanted, and the Chinese presence in Ethiopia was minimal. But the North Koreans were active in several areas, including small-scale construction and festivals (which particularly impressed the Ethiopians). North Korea built two large ammunitions factories in the country and supported Ethiopians’ ambitions to produce their own weapons. There was some competition between the Cubans and North Koreans, and Koreans also helped in the war against Somalia, although not on the scale of the Cubans. Assefe had the sense that the North Koreans considered Mengistu as the kind of take-charge “big man” who seemed like a Kim Il Sung in the making.
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>Ethiopia under Mengistu Haili Miriam was one of the most significant of the Marxist-Leninist experiments in Africa, and one of North Korea’s most active African partners in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After the 1974 overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassi, Mengistu approached the Americans for support; rebuffed, he turned to Moscow in January 1975. The Soviets gave generously: Ethiopia was the most important Soviet-led intervention outside Europe until Afghanistan in 1979, the largest foreign assistance program the USSR had undertaken since China in the 1950s, and the largest socialist multilateral aid project since the reconstruction of North Korea after the Korean War. China itself was conspicuously absent in Ethiopia, focusing on other parts of Africa and leaving the reconstruction of Ethiopia to the USSR and its close allies. Cuba played a particularly active role, sending 11,600 soldiers and 1,000 advisors. East Germany was also a leading source of military and economic aid to the Mengistu regime. North Korea’s highly visible presence in Ethiopia during the Mengistu period is rather ironic, as Ethiopia under the old regime had participated in the Korean War on the South Korean side. Kim Il Sung commented to GDR leader Erich Honecker in 1984 that “w e have agricultural specialists in nearly all African countries,” and that “Ethiopia has obviously achieved the highest level of consolidation of a Marxist party” in Africa.
>North Korea’s decision to send military advisors, engineers, and agricultural experts was almost a mirror-image of its role as an aid recipient after the Korean War, and perhaps that was a conscious motivation. Just as the Soviets helped rebuild Pyongyang and the East Germans Hamhung, 51 so the North Koreans helped to reconstruct Addis Ababa as a “socialist” city. One unique skill the North Koreans had was in staging parades and “mass games,” which they taught the Ethiopians to perform for the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the revolution in September 1984. Another of their projects was the “Victory Monument” in front of the main hospital in Addis Ababa.
>North Korea sent around 500 advisors to Ethiopia from 1977, mostly in the military field to train in anti-guerilla tactics and for fighting Somalia (which by now had switched to a pro-American position). Agricultural advisors were also sent, whose projects included an attempt to plant rice in the south of the country, an experiment that utterly failed. Mengistu him self visited Pyongyang twice and was deeply impressed by what he saw there, so much so that he made his citizens sport North Korean-style uniforms.
>According to my interviews with Assefe Medhanie, formerly in charge of foreign affairs for the Ethiopian Workers’ Party, the Mengistu regime sought “loose solidarity under the umbrella of the Soviet Union,” and turned to several socialist countries for support. The Chinese were not forthcoming with the kind of weaponry and aid they wanted, and the Chinese presence in Ethiopia was minimal. But the North Koreans were active in several areas, including small-scale construction and festivals (which particularly impressed the Ethiopians). North Korea built two large ammunitions factories in the country and supported Ethiopians’ ambitions to produce their own weapons. There was some competition between the Cubans and North Koreans, and Koreans also helped in the war against Somalia, although not on the scale of the Cubans. Assefe had the sense that the North Koreans considered Mengistu as the kind of take-charge “big man” who seemed like a Kim Il Sung in the making.
https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/apec/sites/apec/files/files/discussion/65Armstrong.pdf