Ethiopian AK Parts Kits Coming To U.S.

The Firearm Blog reports that Royal Tiger Imports will be importing AK parts kits from Ethiopia. Royal Tiger had previously imported M1 Carbines and some other miscellaneous WWII era rifles from Ethiopia. The author believes that these will likely be AKs manufactured by North Korea or from a factory in Ethiopia built by the North Koreans. The author explains:

    I encountered plenty of Ethiopian-made AKs in Somalia and was probably the first gun writer to publish a detailed article about them. In fact, the article about Ethiopian AKs was my first submission to The Firearm Blog eight years ago, back when I first applied for the job. I never imagined I’d see those rifles enter the U.S. market — but here we are.

[snip]

    A guard entered the office container where I was dealing with paperwork, and I noticed he had an AK rifle with unique black plastic furniture. The stock had the letters GAEC and a star on it. I stared at it for a minute, but it didn't look like anything I had seen before. Being a self-proclaimed AK expert, that hurt my feelings.

    The next day, I inspected his rifle and found the factory marking on the left side of the receiver - GAFAT-I. Never before have I heard anything about this manufacturer or the fact that Ethiopia even makes firearms at all.

[snip]

    The origins of the Ethiopian guns remained unknown to me until one day, when I was staying at the dormitory of a Saudi arms factory and was just killing time, reading some old gun magazines. I came across Frank Iannamico’s article about North Korean AKs and realised that I’ve seen all those features before - on those GAFAT guns in Somalia.

    Those strange GAFAT-1 rifles looked a lot like the North Korean AKM called Type 68 and had all the same features: the selector markings, the indentation above the magazine release, sling attachment loop on the gas block, trigger with two hooks, and 800-meter rear sight. 

    Later on, I found a declassified CIA report from 1984 which stated that “North Korea has also offered to build a small arms factory in Ethiopia. Factory construction will begin in 1984, with completion planned for 1987”.