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Korea Times Project, part 3b: US Embassy reopens in Cuba

August 14, 2015

Hyundai cars, Samsung smartphones easily spotted on streets of Havana

A view of Havana, Cuba. (Kim Sang-mok/Korea Times)

By Kim Sang-mok

HAVANA, CUBA — The flag of the United States was raised today for the first time in 54 years at the embassy reopening in Havana.

The reopening of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations have put the world’s spotlight on Cuba, where the effects of an opened window to the isolated country remain to be seen.

Buildings from the 1950s and 1960s dominate the Havana landscape, as do American-made cars from the 1950s.

Hyundais and Samsung smartphones are easily spotted on the city’s streets, mostly brought into the country through Canadian or Spanish distributors. No South Korean companies have yet directly entered the Cuban market.

According to Jeong Deok-rae, head of the Havana branch of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, a nouveau riche class has recently risen in Cuba from self-started businesses, while government employees and citizens are also earning extra income by operating as street vendors or as small business owners, gradual cracks in the state-run system.

The entrance to the North Korean Embassy in Havana, Cuba. (Kim Sang-mok/Korea Times)

Although there are no South Korean embassies in Cuba, a North Korean one stands in Havana. The country maintains over 60 diplomatic missions around the world.

Cuba also maintains an embassy in Pyongyang.