SEOUL, June 10 (UPI) -- North Korea stated Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni sent a message to Kim Jong Un congratulating the North Korean leader for his new appointment as chairman of the Korean Workers' Party.
Museveni wasn't the only African leader to send a missive, according to Pyongyang's state-controlled news agency KCNA on Friday.
Mozambique President Philippe Nyusi, President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi all sent Kim similar messages, North Korea stated.
"In his reply to the warm wishes Chairman Kim sent expressions of deep gratitude and articulated assurances that [Pyongyang] and the countries will further strengthen friendly cooperative relations," Pyongyang said in its statement.
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The announcement comes less than two weeks after Uganda agreed to stop military cooperation with North Korea, during a state visit to the country by South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
Pyongyang also said the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sent North Korea a bouquet of flowers ahead of the Seventh Party Congress, and that Kim sent Abbas a note in return.
The party congress produced no new strategy for North Korea, including its economy, according to Seoul.
Kim recently provided field guidance at a newly built kimchi factory, but that visit and other trips are a symptom of a moribund economy, according to one South Korean analyst.
Cho Bong-hyun, a senior research fellow at the Industrial Bank of Korea in Seoul, said that Kim sometimes has been conducting "repeat visits" of the same sites because most of the state's infrastructure is not suitable for propaganda presentation.
Pyongyang has been allocating much of its funds toward nuclear weapons development, which could be costing the civilian economy, South Korean television network KBS reported.
