NORTH KOREAN DELEGATION ARRIVES UNINVITED

C O N F I D E N T I A L LILONGWE 000032 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/S GABRIELLE MALLORY STATE FOR INR/AA E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/12/2011 TAGS: PGOV KDEM MI KN SUBJECT: NORTH KOREAN DELEGATION ARRIVES UNINVITED Classified By: Political Officer Tyler Sparks for reasons 1.4 (b) and ( d). ¶1. (C) Summary: In a meeting with Ambassador Eastham, Minister of Foreign Affairs Davies Katsonga confided that a delegation from North Korea had arrived uninvited last week. Malawi has allowed the delegation to meet with lower level civil servants, however has refused requests for meetings at the Ministerial level. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Katsonga said the North Koreans had some months ago contacted Malawi, with whom they have (inactive) diplomatic relations, and asked permission for a delegation to visit to discuss development in Malawi. Malawi, according to Katsonga, put off the request, and instead asked that they reconsider the idea sometime after March (by which time, Katsonga said, he hoped that the "nuclear issue might be resolved"). ¶3. (C) However, as Katsonga explained it, last week the Ministry received a phone call that "the North Koreans were at the airport." The North Koreans requested meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defense, both of which the GOM decided to deny. Instead, officials at a "lower level" are meeting with the delegation, which is still in the country. ¶4. (C) The Ambassador told Katsonga that quite aside from the question of nuclear issues, which was extremely important to global security, the North Koreans were bad news. They had a history of behaving like gangsters, had repeatedly engaged in smuggling, money-laundering, and similar activities to fund their overseas operations, and any &development funds8 they might offer could very well represent ill-gotten gains. Malawi would be much better off simply declining whatever they might have on their minds. ¶5. (C) Comment: When we called for the appointment yesterday (to deliver the U.N. reform demarche),we didn,t mention to the Ministry the subject matter, and we suspect the Minister thought the Ambassador was coming over to say something about the North Korean visit. If the Department wishes to provide any supplemental guidance to the Ambassador's off-the-cuff response reported above, we would be happy to go back to Katsonga. We will follow up on this information to see what the Malawians will tell us about the North Korean delegation's purpose. End Comment. EASTHAM