Egypt cuts military ties with North Korea

Egypt’s defence minister, Sedki Sobhi, announced today that his country has cut military ties with North Korea, a report by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency revealed.

Sobhi’s announcement came during his visit to South Korea’s capital of Seoul.

The South Korean agency quoted the South Korean defence ministry as saying that the Egyptian Defence Minister Sedki Sobhi told his South Korean counterpart, Song Young-moo, that Egypt had "already severed all military ties with North Korea.”

"Egypt will actively cooperate with South Korea against North Korea acts that threaten peace,” the agency quoted Sobhi as saying.

The report noted that Sobhi was responding to a request from Young-moo for Egypt to join efforts to toughen sanctions on the North over its recent ballistic missile and nuclear tests.

This is Sobhi’s first meeting with Young-moo, which came after a South Korean-Egypt memorandum of understanding (MoU) on defence cooperation was signed in March

Egypt has for decades maintained close ties with North Korea, with the secretive nation selling weapons to Egypt and upgrading its arsenal of medium-range, ground-to-ground missiles.

Last month, the United States (US) cut or delayed some $300 million in military and economic aid to Egypt over its human rights records and its ties with Pyongyang.