ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the overlooked historical episode of economic interaction between Singapore and North Korea during the Cold War, situating it within Singapore's broader mission of industrialisation and pragmatic diplomacy. Contrary to the dominant narrative that aligns Singapore firmly with the Western capitalist bloc, various archival evidences in this chapter reveal that Singapore engaged in limited but strategic trade and semi-diplomatic exchanges with North Korea throughout the 1960s. These exchanges demonstrate how Singapore pursued flexible economic engagements even with ideologically distant partners. The chapter argues that such connections were not accidental but rather part of Singapore's state-led industrial development model, in which trade networks and infrastructure-building were prioritized over ideological alignment. By tracing these trans-regional linkages, the chapter contributes to the understanding of Cold War Asia as a multi-nodal space shaped by non-aligned economic strategies and situates Singapore as an emerging economic node that negotiated space between global ideological blocs.
