Oranckay’s last post reminded me of a March 5, 2003 piece on North Korean-Cuban ties by Aidan Foster-Carter in the Asia Times ties that had me rolling. In it, Foster-Carter writes:
True, in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis - another time of nuclear tension - Pyongyang claims to have somehow eluded the US blockade and shipped arms to Cuba. Its reward was loads of free sugar. North Korean youth brigades used to go each year and cut cane, but as a solidarity gesture rather than a business deal - unlike, say, the sorry loggers who are still sent as virtual serfs to fell trees in Siberia.
Solidarity? I’ve heard two anecdotes (from different sources) about these exchanges. The Korean cane brigades, before they set out, were firmly told where fraternization stopped. Fellow communists they might be; but Cuban women had deplorably lax morals, and were strictly off limits. Anyone tempted was instructed to - how shall I put this? - practice self-reliance. Perhaps the order was misunderstood. A friend working in Cuba at the time told me that at least one batch of North Koreans were sent home - for homosexuality, of which Castro is notoriously intolerant. Mutual self-reliance, you might say …
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