During the Cold War, North Korea – like many other states aligned with the Soviet Union, or in general opposition to colonialism – provided military, political and diplomatic aid to the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the movement fighting Portugal in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence.

[1] Before independence, Amílcar Cabral and other members of the PAIGC traveled to North Korea, China, and Japan and met with Kim Il Sung in North Korea.

[2][3] Following independence, Guinea-Bissau subsequently established diplomatic relations with North Korea on 16 March 1974.

[6] In 1977, a few years prior to being overthrown, Guinea-Bissau's first independent leader – President Luís Cabral – visited Pyongyang, meeting Kim Il Sung together with his wife.

[7] A decade later on his 70th birthday, in 1982, Kim Il Sung was awarded the Amílcar Cabral Order by the Bissau-Guinean government.