The Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly – North Korea’s legislature – officially confirmed the appointment of Pak Chang Yul as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s new ambassador to the Republic of Cuba, the KCNA reported Saturday.

The DPRK-Cuba relationship is among the most important in Pyongyang’s foreign relations. North Korea and the Caribbean island nation are both pariah states subject to sanctions. They are both adversaries of the United States and both lost what had been their biggest benefactor with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in 1991.