CONGOLESE GOVERNMENT PLANNING VISIT TO CHINA,

C O N F I D E N T I A L KINSHASA 001958

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/20/2014
TAGS: ECON EINV ENRG ETRD ETTC PINR PREL CG CH KN
SUBJECT: CONGOLESE GOVERNMENT PLANNING VISIT TO CHINA,
NORTH KOREA

Classified By: PolCouns MSanderson, reasons 1.4 b/d.


1. (C) Presidential Advisor and Special Ambassador Andre
Kapanga told PolCouns October 18 that he and Foreign Minister
Ramazani (possibly with other government officials) will be
visiting China the first week of November, followed by a
4-day visit to North Korea. Kapanga said the delegation will
try to encourage improved trade with and investment in the
DRC by China, but seemed almost embarrassed when PolCouns
asked what Congo could get from North Korea, and gave no
clear answer except to assure her that the DRC certainly does
not intend to sell anything like uranium to the North Koreans.


2. (C) China has long had a very visible presence in the
DRC: aside from its Embassy, there is also a relatively
large (200-300 man) engineering battalion in Bukavu attached
to the UN Mission to the Congo (MONUC). This detachment is
ostensibly responsible for maintaining the road to the
airport, which is frequently washed out, but the deplorable
condition of the road substantiates comments by Bukavu Monuc
personnel that "no one knows what they are doing out there."
In addition, there are numerous reports of Chinese (or other
asian) individuals in Katanga province, near the Shinkolobwe
mine, and recently Chinese businessmen have been visiting
Lumbambashi, the Katangan capital. It is possible that the
government simply wants to officially capture its revenue
share of the resource traffic which already probably is
leaving Congo en route to China. The same does not, however,
apply to North Korea, which remains, at best, a very strange
destination for this delegation.
MEECE