During the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis, North Korea shipped to Cuba large quantities of weapons in aid, breaking the sea blockade set up by the United States, according to an article reportedly carried in a confidential booklet distributed to senior North Korean military officials.
In the crisis, the Kennedy administration enforced a tight sea blockade around Cuba in an attempt to stop the Soviet Union's vessels from carrying missiles to the island country. Breaking the blockade, North Korea shipped to Cuba 100,000 assault, three million rounds of ammunition, and an unspecified number of 107mm multiple rocket launchers and 14.43mm anti-aircraft guns, said North Korea watchers in Seoul. The booklet, published late in the 1990s, was distributed to colonels and above in the People's Army of North Korea.
Pyongyang appears to have made public the fact to senior military officials with the aim of implanting in them a sense of confidence that the North can cope with a possible blockade of North Korean vessels exporting missiles, threatened by the United States, as they did during the Cuban crisis, speculated the sources.
The article is also learned to have reported that during the crisis Kim Il Sung instructed the Pyongyang embassy staff stationed in Havana to remain and fight with the Cubans, when their counterparts from other countries were evacuating from the Cuban capital. In appreciation of the aid and support North Korea extended to it, Cuba is said to have shipped to Pyongyang free sugar for a long period of time.
(Lee Kyo-kwan, haedang@chosun.com)
