[Yonhap News Photo]
North Korea has withdrawn its forces from Uganda, state media said, refuting South Korea's claim that the African nation was severing military ties with the isolated communist state.
South Korean officials have said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni promised to cut all military ties with North Korea at a summit with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in May.
As a follow-up, Uganda has asked some 60 North Korean troops and state security officials to leave the country, the South's Defense Ministry said last week when Charles Bakahumura, a Ugandan military intelligence official, visited Seoul.
Pyongyang argued in a foreign ministry statement on Sunday that North Korean personnel were pulling out of Uganda just because a contract expired. North Korea and Uganda had maintained active military exchanges since the two signed a military cooperation accord in 1987.
"As a relevant contract has expired, the personnel of the DPRK (North Korea) are now withdrawing themselves from the country according to an agreement between the two countries," said the statement published by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.
Pyongyang accused Washington of giving an impression that Uganda has ceased its cooperation with North Korea under pressure. "This is indeed ridiculous."
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
