North Korea decided to close its embassy in Uganda for strategic reasons, it was announced after the meeting between North Korean Ambassador Jong Tong Hak and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday.
"Ambassador Jong informed the president that North Korea has taken a strategic measure to reduce the number of embassies in Africa, Uganda inclusive, in order to increase efficiency of the country's external institutions," said a Ugandan presidency statement cited by AFP.
The North Korean ambassador clarified that the "good friendship between the two countries will continue and be further strengthened," and added that diplomatic relations would now be handled through his country's embassy in Equatorial Guinea.
Moreover, Jong expressed his gratitude to the President of Uganda for supporting the North Korean government.
"For consistently supporting the Korean government in enforcing its peaceful efforts to realize a harmonious unification of the Korean Peninsula", the statement reads.
North Korea established bilateral relations with Uganda after the independence of the East African country from Britain in 1962. After Museveni took power in 1986, Kampala and Pyongyang signed cooperation agreements and opened its embassy in Uganda.