North Korea declared three days of national mourning for ‘close friend and ally’ Fidel Castro

World News Nilgun Salim
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North Korea declared three days of mourning in homage to ‘close friend and ally’ Fidel Castro.

The flags were lowered to half-staff on the North Korean territory in the honor of the Cuban ‘father of the revolution’ – who passed away on Friday at 90 years.

At the Pyongyang subway, passengers were gathered around a vitrine which featured an obituary published by Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the single party in power.

The obituary is accompanied by a picture of Fidel Castro, bearded and wearing a military uniform. The picture was taken in 1986, during Fidel Castro’s visit in North Korea.

Back then, the Cuban leader was honored with the ‘Hero of the DPRK’ title, which represents North Korea’s official name. The title represented a reward for Castro’s efforts to strengthen the bilateral relations and for his ‘anti-American and anti-imperialist’ policy.

The only visit Castro has made in North Korea took place decades after the Cuban revolution, reflecting the cultural, geographical and often ideological distance between the two countries that shared their hate for US.

Neither Kim Il-sung or his son and successor Kim Jong-Il – who was afraid to travel by plane – not ever went to Cuba.

The North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un sent a condolence message after announcing the death of ‘El Comandante’, evoking the words: ‘a close friend and companion’. A North Korean delegation left Monday to Havana.

In 1970, Havana and Pyongyang were rivals in the Non-Aligned Movement.

In the same period he attended a summit of non-aligned countries in 2003 in Malaysia, Castro made stopovers in China, Japan and Vietnam, but not in North Korea.