After 4 years, India restores diplomatic ties with North Korea
India has resumed full diplomatic engagement with North Korea, appointing senior diplomat Aliawati Longkumer as its next ambassador to Pyongyang after a four-year diplomatic freeze.
The move signals India’s cautious re-entry into a sensitive regional equation shaped by nuclear tensions, sanctions, and North Korea’s close military links with Pakistan and China.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs confirmed Longkumer’s appointment in a statement on June 17.
Aliawati Longkumer is a 2008-batch Indian Foreign Service officer from Nagaland. He has served in Indian missions in Qatar, Fiji, Germany, and Guatemala, and held roles in the UN and Pacific Division at India’s Ministry of External Affairs. He is currently the chargé d’affaires at the Indian Embassy in Paraguay and has been appointed India’s next ambassador to North Korea.
India shut down its embassy in Pyongyang in July 2021 due to COVID-19 disruptions but reopened the mission in December 2024 after extensive security and surveillance assessments. The last Indian ambassador to North Korea was Atul Malhari Gotsurve, Hindustan Times.
While India froze all trade with North Korea in 2017 to comply with United Nations Security Council sanctions targeting Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, it never formally cut diplomatic ties.
Strategic concerns, particularly over North Korea’s assistance to Pakistan’s missile development, have kept the relationship under scrutiny.
India has previously provided humanitarian aid to North Korea, including food and medicine, and hosted North Korean officials for technical training. Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh visited Pyongyang in 2018, the highest level of Indian visit in decades.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
