Embassy of North Korea, Dhaka

Bangladesh and North Korea established diplomatic ties with one another in 1973. This was followed by the opening of the North Korean embassy in Dhaka the subsequent year. However, cooperation with each other was generally limited and there were no notable trade relations.^[4][1] There were instances of North Korean diplomats being caught smuggling items in 2015 and 2016.^[4] On 8 August 2016, the first secretary of the embassy, Han Son Ik, was deported from Bangladesh for violating diplomatic norms after a shipping container with illegally smuggled cigarettes and electronics was seized by local officials.^[5][6]

As a financial crisis hit North Korea as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea shut several embassies down in Angola, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Hong Kong, Nepal, Senegal, Spain, and Uganda at the end of 2023.^[3] The one in Bangladesh was closed on 20 November, and North Korean diplomats departed the country the following day. This was the sixth North Korean embassy to be closed since late October, and the second in South Asia after the embassy in Nepal.^[4][7] Although North Korea stated that they would reopen the embassy in the future, it would continue to maintain relations with Bangladesh through its embassy in New Delhi, like how Bangladesh manages their relations with North Korea through the Bangladeshi embassy in Beijing, China.^[8][9]

• Bangladesh–North Korea relations
• List of diplomatic missions of North Korea