Sri Lankan Minister for Foreign Affairs G.L. Peiris denied reports claiming that Sri Lanka had purchased weapons from North Korea during its brutal civil war, which was fought for 25 years from 1983 to 2009. According to various estimates, the violence during this period resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 civilians from both sides, with around 40,000 to 50,000 of them being Sri Lankan Tamils.
The clarification by Peiris comes in response to a statement made by the country’s Minister of Finance, Basil Rajapaksa, wherein he allegedly admitted that Colombo had purchased weapons from Pyongyang with money from the black market in the city’s Pettah business district. Quoted by News First, Rajapaksa also said that Sri Lankan authorities had also used black market dollars to buy fuel during that period.
His comments were made while he was defending the use of the black market system to bring in much-needed foreign reserves as the South-Asian country faces an unprecedented foreign reserve shortage and a subsequent energy crisis.
In response, the Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that Rajapaksa had “categorically denied the comments attributed to him in the said news item.” It urged audiences to “give the same prominence” to the press release as was given to the News First article.
Despite attempts to salvage the situation, this controversy is likely to attract criticism from the international community. North Korea continues to face several sanctions from the United Nations (UN) that specifically bar the trade of arms and military equipment. Hence, the purchase of arms by Sri Lanka was in clear violation of its international obligations.
Moreover, before the end of the war in 2009, a United States embassy leak had also mentioned the aforementioned negotiation to secure arms and ammunition between Sri Lanka and North Korea, specifically the “RPG-7 Rocket Propelled Grenade Launchers (RPGs) and Multiple Rocket Launchers (MRLs).” The leaked cable also stated that Sri Lanka had breached the UN-imposed sanctions by purchasing weapons from Iran as well.
In March 2021, Sri Lankan envoy to the UN C.A. Chandraprema spurred controversy after defending North Korea before the human rights council. As the Special Rapporteur presented a report highlighting the systematic and widespread human rights abuses conducted by Pyongyang, Chandraprema called for “mutual respect and coordination.” This occurred in the same week when Sri Lanka became the first country to officially recognise Myanmar’s military junta that had come to power after ousting a democratically-elected government last year.