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{{Use Indian English|date=June 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}
{{Infobox bilateral relations|Indo-North Korean|India|North Korea|filetype=svg
|mission1=Embassy of India, [[Pyongyang]]
|mission2=Embassy of North Korea, [[New Delhi]]
|envoytitle1= Ambassador
|envoy1= Aliawati Longkumer<ref>{{Cite web |title=Indian Missions Abroad, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India |url=https://www.mea.gov.in/indian-mission.htm?504/Korea_DPR? |access-date=2024-07-18 |website=www.mea.gov.in/}}</ref>
|envoytitle2= Ambassador
|envoy2= Choe Hui Chol<ref>{{Cite web |title=Protocol Division, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India |url=https://meaprotocol.nic.in/?a1DPR/Korea? |access-date=2023-06-06 |website=meaprotocol.nic.in}}</ref>
}}
'''India–North Korea relations''' ({{Langx|ko|인디아-조선민주주의 인민공화국 관계}}), also called '''Indian-North Korean relations''' or '''Indo-North Korean relations''', are the [[Bilateralism|bilateral relations]] between [[India]] and [[North Korea]]. Both countries have growing diplomatic relations. [[India]] maintains an embassy in [[Pyongyang]], and [[North Korea]] has an embassy in [[New Delhi]].

India was one of North Korea's biggest trade partners and a major food aid provider.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ibtimes.com/why-does-india-have-relations-north-korea-213592 | title=Why Does India Have Relations With North Korea? | publisher=IBTimes | date=30 December 2011}}</ref> According to [[Confederation of Indian Industries|CII]], India's exports to North Korea in 2013 totaled more than US$60 million.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0809/opinions-north-korea-india-blockade-heads-up.html | title=Look Who's Helping North Korea | work=Forbes | date=November 2010}}</ref>

As of 2012, India maintained that any peaceful agreement between North Korea and South Korea will be strongly endorsed. India has also cleared that it wants the [[reunification of Korea]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mea.gov.in/mystart.php?id=50049826 |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-02-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405025720/http://www.mea.gov.in/mystart.php?id=50049826 |archive-date=5 April 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> According to 2014 [[BBC]] World Service Poll, 23% of Indians view North Korea's worldly influence positively, with 27% expressing a negative view.<ref>[http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/country-rating-poll.pdf Negative views of Russia on the Rise: Global Poll]</ref>

In 2017, India implemented the [[Sanctions against North Korea|United Nations Security Council economic sanctions]] and ceased most trade with North Korea.<ref name=38north-20200930/> In 2022, India condemned North Korea's launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles.<ref name="b936">{{cite web | title=India condemns recent intercontinental ballistic missile launch by North Korea | website=The Times of India | date=2022-11-22 | url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-condemns-recent-intercontinental-ballistic-missile-launch-by-north-korea/articleshow/95674870.cms | access-date=2026-01-01}}</ref>

==History==
===Pre-modern relations===
According to the 13th century chronicle ''[[Samguk Yusa]]'', the ancient Korean queen [[Heo Hwang-ok]] came from a kingdom called "Ayuta". Different theories identifies Ayuta as Ayodhya or Kanyakumari in India.<ref>{{cite book |author=Choong Soon Kim |title=Voices of Foreign Brides: The Roots and Development of Multiculturalism in Korea |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b43pR3Z8zTcC&pg=PA34 |date=16 October 2011 |publisher=AltaMira Press |isbn=978-0-7591-2037-2 |page=34 }}</ref>

A famous Korean visitor to India was [[Hyecho]], a Korean Buddhist monk from Silla, one of the three Korean kingdoms of the period. On the advice of his Indian teachers in China, he set out for India in 723 CE to acquaint himself with the language and Indian culture. He wrote a travelogue of his journey in Chinese, [[Wang ocheonchukguk jeon]] or "An account of travel to the five Indian kingdoms". The work was long thought to be lost. However, a manuscript turned up among the [[Dunhuang manuscripts]] during the early 20th century.{{cn|date=January 2026}}

A rich merchant from the [[Ma'bar Sultanate]], Abu Ali (P'aehali) 孛哈里 (or 布哈爾 Buhaer), was associated closely with the Ma'bar royal family. After falling out with them, he moved to [[Yuan dynasty]] China and received a Korean woman as his wife and a job from the Mongol Emperor, the woman was formerly [[w:zh:桑哥|桑哥]] Sangha's wife and her father was 蔡仁揆 [[w:ko:채송년|채송년]] Ch'ae In'gyu during the reign of 忠烈 [[Chungnyeol of Goryeo]], recorded in the [[Dongguk Tonggam]], [[Goryeosa]] and [[w:zh:留夢炎|留夢炎]] Liu Mengyan's 中俺集 Zhong'anji.<ref name="Schottenhammer2008">{{cite book|author=Angela Schottenhammer|title=The East Asian Mediterranean: Maritime Crossroads of Culture and Commerce and Human Migration|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GSA_AaRdgioC&pg=PA138|year=2008|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-05809-4|pages=138–}}</ref><ref>SEN, TANSEN. 2006. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/41649921?seq=17 The Yuan Khanate and India: Cross-cultural Diplomacy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries]". Asia Major 19 (1/2). Academia Sinica: [http://www2.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/file/1445ZBWAkRi.pdf 317.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160127000201/http://www2.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/file/1445ZBWAkRi.pdf |date=27 January 2016 }}</ref> [[w:zh:桑哥|桑哥]] Sangha was a Tibetan.<ref>[http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp110_wuzong_emperor.pdf Shaykh 'Âlam: the Emperor of Early Sixteenth-Century China ] p. 15.</ref>

Rabindranath Tagore's poem 'Lamp of the East 'composed in 1929 speaks about the
glorious past and bright future of Korea. This poem is popular even today:
<blockquote><poem>
"In the golden age of Asia, Korea was one of its lamp bearers and
That lamp is waiting to be lighted once again for the illumination in the East"<ref>{{cite web |title=India_DPRK_bilatral_brief |url=https://www.mea.gov.in/Portal/ForeignRelation/India_DPRK_bilatral_brief_for_website_of_MEA.pdf |website=mea.gov.in |publisher=Ministry of External Affairs |access-date=7 August 2020}}</ref>
</poem></blockquote>

===Korean War===
India condemned North Korea as an aggressor when the [[Korean War]] started, supporting Security Council resolutions [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 82|82]] and [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 83|83]] on the crisis. However, India did not support [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 84|resolution 84]] for military assistance to South Korea. As a [[Non-Aligned Movement|non-aligned]] country, [https://thekootneeti.in/2017/10/19/remembering-the-veterans-the-untold-history-of-indian-efforts-in-korean-war/ India hesitated to involve itself in a military commitment against North Korea]. Instead, India gave its moral support for the UN action and decided to send a medical unit to Korea as a humanitarian gesture. The 60th Indian Field Ambulance Unit, a unit of the [[Parachute Regiment (India)|Indian Airborne Division]], was selected to be dispatched to Korea. The unit consisted of 346 men including 14 doctors.<ref>Kim Chan Wahn. "The Role of India in the Korean War", '''[[International Area Studies Review]]''', June 2010; vol. 13(2), pp. 21–37.</ref>

India was chair of the 9-member UN Commission that monitored elections in undivided Korea in 1947. After the Korean War, India again played an important role as the chair of the [[Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission]] in the Korean peninsula.<ref name=indiaembassy-202002/>

===Recent relations===
Consular relations were created on 1 March 1962, and The Consulate General of India in the DPRK was established in October 1968. An Indian Embassy in Pyongyang was established on 10 December 1973. Both states are members of the [[Non-Aligned Movement]], underlining a common view on many international issues.<ref name=indiaembassy-202002>{{cite web |url=https://eoi.gov.in/pyongyang/?pdf4086?000 |title=India-DPR Korea Relations |publisher=Embassy of India Pyongyang |date=February 2020 |access-date=8 October 2020}}</ref><ref name="telegraphindia">{{cite news |title=The food bridge India built with Kim's Korea |url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111220/jsp/frontpage/story_14904670.jsp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107204356/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111220/jsp/frontpage/story_14904670.jsp |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 January 2012 |access-date=21 December 2012 |newspaper=The Telegraph |location=Kolkata}}</ref> India makes efforts to engage in dialogue to support peace and stability in Korea and tries to act as a bridge between North Korea and the [[Western world]].<ref name=38north-20200930>{{cite web |url=https://www.38north.org/2020/09/jpanda093020/ |title=India's Ties to North Korea: Can New Delhi Overcome Challenges to Its Maturing Engagement? |last=Panda |first=Jagannath |publisher=The Henry L. Stimson Center |work=[[38 North]] |date=30 September 2020 |access-date=8 October 2020}}</ref>

[[File:Anmol Mukhia with Kim Chun Yong.JPG|thumb|287x287px|Ambassador Gye Chun Yong]]
India's relationship with North Korea has however been affected by North Korean relations with Pakistan especially due to its help for Pakistan's nuclear missile programme. In 1999, India impounded a North Korean ship off the Kandla coast that was found to be carrying missile components and blueprints. India's relations with South Korea have far greater economic and technological depth and India's keenness for South Korean investments and technology have in turn affected its relations with the North adversely. India has consistently voiced its opposition to North Korean nuclear and missile tests.<ref name="kimsdeath">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/kim-s-death-will-india-north-korea-ties-improve-159218 |title=Kim's death: Will India-North Korea ties improve? | publisher=NDTV | date=20 December 2011 |access-date=21 December 2012 |archive-date=16 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130316045517/http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/kim-s-death-will-india-north-korea-ties-improve-159218 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="thehindu">{{cite news|title=North Korea's rocket launch unwarranted: India|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/north-koreas-rocket-launch-unwarranted-india/article4192813.ece|access-date=21 December 2012|newspaper=The Hindu|date=13 December 2012}}</ref>

As a consequence of [[Sanctions against North Korea|United Nations Security Council economic sanctions]], with effect from 7 March 2019, Indian citizens can not undertake capital account transactions with North Korean citizens. Also Indian Government has asked the existing investment transactions to be liquidated within a period of 180 days from the date of notification.

In July 2021, India temporarily closed its embassy in [[Pyongyang]] due to COVID-19 restrictions and the Indian ambassador to North Korea, Atul Gotsurve left North Korea on a special train via the [[North Korea–Russia border]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=COVID-19: India 'Temporarily Closes' Embassy in North Korea, Ambassador Leaves Country |url=https://thewire.in/diplomacy/covid-north-korea-pyongyang-atul-gotsurve-embassy-closes |access-date=2023-06-06 |website=The Wire}}</ref> It was reopened in December 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-19 |title=India reopens embassy in North Korea with a carrot and stick policy |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-news/story/indias-reopens-embassy-in-north-korea-in-a-carrot-and-stick-policy-gbls-2652624-2024-12-19 |access-date=2024-12-20 |website=India Today |language=en}}</ref>

In September 2022, India condemned the launching of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles by North Korea in a joint statement shared with the countries such as the United States, [[Japan]], the [[United Kingdom]] and others.<ref name="v118">{{cite web | last=India | first=Press Trust of | title=India Condemns North Korea Missile Test, Says It "Affects Peace, Security" | website=www.ndtv.com | date=2022-10-06 | url=https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/india-condemns-north-korea-missile-test-says-it-affects-peace-security-3406688 | access-date=2026-01-01}}</ref>

==Economic relations==

===Trade===
Trade between India and North Korea reached an average total of about $10 million in the middle of the 2000s; it shot up to $60 million in 2013. The trade is overwhelmingly in India's favor, with its exports accounting for roughly $60 million while North Korean exports to India were worth $36 million. India's primary export to North Korea is refined petroleum products while silver and auto parts are the main components of its imports from North Korea.<ref>{{cite news|title=Look Who's Helping North Korea|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0809/opinions-north-korea-india-blockade-heads-up.html|access-date=21 December 2012|newspaper=Forbes Magazine|date=9 August 2010}}</ref> India participated in the sixth Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair in October 2010 and there have been efforts to bring about greater economic cooperation and trade between the two countries since then.<ref name="telegraphindia" /><ref name="thehindu" /> In 2010–11, Indo-North Korean trade stood at $57 million with India's exports accounting for $32 million.<ref>{{cite news|title=How much it will affect India-North Korea ties|url=http://www.navhindtimes.in/india-news/how-much-it-will-affect-india-north-korea-ties|access-date=21 December 2012|newspaper=Nav Hind Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=India – DPR Korea Relations|url=http://www.mea.gov.in/Portal/ForeignRelation/koreadpr-english.pdf|publisher=Ministry of External Affairs|access-date=21 December 2012}}</ref>
Due to UNSC sanctions resolutions, trade except food and medicine, with DPRK with
effect from April 2017 is restricted. The bilateral trade has declined considerably due to
India's participation in UN sanctions.<ref>{{cite web |title=India_DPRK_bilatral_brief |url=https://www.mea.gov.in/Portal/ForeignRelation/India_DPRK_bilatral_brief_for_website_of_MEA.pdf |website=mea.gov.in |publisher=Ministry of External Affairs |access-date=7 August 2020}}</ref>

===Food aid===
In 2002 and 2004, India contributed 2000 tonnes of food grains to help North Korea tide over severe famine-like conditions. In 2010, India responded to North Korea's request for [[food aid]] and made available to it 1300 tonnes of [[pulses]] and [[wheat]] worth $1 million through the UN [[World Food Programme]].<ref>{{cite web|title=India Gives Food Aid as U.S.-SK Think| date=28 March 2011 |url=http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00100&num=7506|publisher=[[Daily NK]]|access-date=21 December 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=India's secret-ish romance with North Korea|url=http://www.firstpost.com/world/indias-secret-ish-romance-with-north-korea-160590.html|access-date=21 December 2012|newspaper=FirstPost.com}}</ref> India has contributed $1 million to the World Food Programme for its humanitarian activities in North Korea in the year 2019, the UN agency's monthly report released in November 2019 showed this, as the impoverished North struggles to cope with chronic food shortages. "WFP has intensified the South-South and Triangular cooperation as an avenue to enhance support to the DPRK and has received a contribution from the Government of India of $1 million for its in-country operations," the report said.

===Medical aid===
The Indian government sent $1 million worth of anti-tuberculosis medicine to North Korea per a request from the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a press release issued by the Indian embassy in Pyongyang. "The medical assistance is under the aegis of WHO's ongoing anti-tuberculosis (TB) program in the DPRK," the press release stated. The aid package was handed over to North Korean authorities by the Indian ambassador to the DPRK, Atul Malhari Gotsurve. The supply of anti-tuberculosis medicine, which is India's latest set of humanitarian assistance to North Korea — was sent because "India is sensitive to the shortage of medical supply" to the DPRK, the embassy stated.<ref>{{Cite web |agency=PTI |date=2020-07-25 |title=India extends medical assistance of $1 million to North Korea after WHO request |url=https://theprint.in/diplomacy/india-extends-medical-assistance-of-1-million-to-north-korea-after-who-request/467899/ |access-date=2025-06-29 |website=ThePrint |language=en-US}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col |colwidth=50em}}
* [[Heo Hwang-ok]], the Indian Queen of 48 CE Korea
* [[Memorial of Heo Hwang-ok, Ayodhya]], India.
* [[Foreign relations of India]]
* [[Foreign relations of North Korea]]
* [[Foreign relations of South Korea]]
* [[India – South Korea relations]]
* [[History of Korea]]
* [[Hinduism in Korea]]
* [[Koreans in India]]
* [[Indians in Korea]]
* [[Pyongyang International Film Festival]], where Indian films have regularly participated
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Foreign relations of India}}
{{Foreign relations of North Korea}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:India-North Korea relations}}
[[Category:India–North Korea relations| ]]
[[Category:Bilateral relations of North Korea]]
[[Category:Bilateral relations of India|North Korea]]
[[Category:India–Korea relations|South]]

India–North Korea relations - Revision history

AbbieLongoria3: added data