Uganda to halt military, security ties with North Korea: South Korean official

Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa (centre) receiving South Korean President Park Geun Hye (right) at Entebbe International Airport, on May 28, 2016. PHOTO: AFP

SEOUL (Reuters) - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said that his country would halt security and military cooperation with North Korea, a South Korean official said following a summit in Kampala between Mr Museveni and South Korean President Park Geun Hye.

Uganda hosted 45 North Koreans providing police training as recently as December, according to a February report by a United Nations panel of experts. Another report by the panel last year said North Koreans trained Ugandan police on the use of AK-47s and pistols.

Isolated North Korea has come under growing diplomatic pressure in the aftermath of its January nuclear test and a space rocket launch in February, which led to a United Nations Security Council resolution in March tightening sanctions against Pyongyang.

"During the summit, Uganda's President Museveni...said he had ordered (officials) to faithfully enforce the UN Security Council resolution including halting of its security, military and police cooperation with North Korea," Mr Jeong Yeon Guk, a spokesman for Park, told reporters in the Ugandan capital on Sunday (May 29), according to the presidential Blue House in Seoul.

Uganda abstained from voting on all nine UN General Assembly resolutions on North Korean human rights for which votes were counted since 2005, a record mirrored by countries including India, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mali and Qatar.

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