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North Korean Public Diplomacy

Throughout the 1970s, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) waged an intensive diplomatic campaign to attract new supporters abroad, including in the United States, and participate in the international community. Pyongyang launched public diplomacy campaigns in approximately fifty countries and funded some 200 “friendship” organizations abroad. Through “people-to-people diplomacy,” North Korea hoped to improve its standing in the international community and foster support for its positions in the United Nations General Assembly. For further information, see the January 2015 essay by Brandon Gauthier "North Korea's American Allies." See also the Digital Archive collection: North Korea and the American Radical Left. (Image: A delegation of the American-Korean Friendship and Information Center visits the Chollima Cultural Center in Pyongyang with Kang Ryang-uk.)