Abbreviation KFA Region served World | Location Spain Official language English | |
Formation November 2000 (2000-11) Purpose Official government cultural liaison agency for North Korea | ||
The Korean Friendship Association (Spanish: Asociación de Amistad con Corea) is a Spain-based friendship association with North Korea. The KFA was established in November 2000. It has official representatives in 28 countries, including Spain, the U.S., Norway, Canada, Brazil, Russia, China, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Israel, Poland and Morocco.
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Its president, Spanish citizen Alejandro Cao de Benós de Les y Pérez, is the only person paid a salary. Fees collected by the KFA are generally deposited in accounts in his name around Europe.
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Compared with other North Korea friendship associations, KFA is more radical.
The KFA pages provides DPRK related material, including tourism tips and political essays, and it is possible to hear views from a DPRK point of view. The KFA Forum site is hosted and administered in Europe and gives links to Korean language teaching sites.
The KFA denies violations of human rights in North Korea and disputes the existence of North Korean concentration camps.
The objectives of the KFA are to promote the well-being of all members and to promote friendship between members of the KFA worldwide.
Objectives
The stated objectives of the KFA are:
KFA organizes travel delegations to North Korea. Travel is according to experts a primary motivation of membership in KFA: partakers in trips are offered privileged service.
Structure
KFA is the largest friendship association with North Korea. It operates in 120 countries. There is an Official Delegate in 34 countries. KFA is licensed by the North Korean government and is well-funded and supported. The organization is coordinated well "to a certain degree", according to NK News.
The national associations under KFA do not receive official funding and operate "as far less than consulates, just slightly more than fan clubs". They do not have many functions to support the government of North Korea: they do not support the regime monetarily and do not gather intelligence.
Official Delegates are responsible for the activities in his/her country and secretaries appointed by the delegates. Above the Official Delegates, the "International Organization Committee" consisting of the President, the International Counselor and an International Organization Secretary who control and direct the activities of the KFA worldwide.
Criticism
NK News describes KFA as "one of the DPRK's primary tools of soft power within its global propaganda network".
David Scofield in the Asia Times Online in 2005 calling members of KFA "useful idiots", described the organization as follows:
The group's activities include "information" seminars where the enlightened benevolence of Kim's rule is championed, all part of its "alternative" view of the North. The ragged wretched displays of poverty and starvation are edited out and the voice of North Koreans not in the direct employ of Kim Jong-il are conspicuously absent. In place of uncomfortable reality, the KFA offers vacation photos of "their" North Korea taken during recent, state supported visits, complete with bowling, golf, amusement parks and Karaoke with young female party members. Members write glowing pieces, oblations celebrating Kim Jong-il's wise rule. No starving people, torture, summary execution, penury or despair in the Korean Friendship Association's North Korea. Just golf, great meals and evenings in the company of Kim Jong-il's beauties.
A 2015 investigation by NK News found the commercial practices and integrity of the KFA to be in question.
According to Hazel Smith of Cranfield University, KFA associations have lost much of their original role as part of an international socialist movement. Today, they are reduced to serving domestic purposes of North Korea.