diff --git a/src/libasr/codegen/asr_to_llvm.cpp b/src/libasr/codegen/asr_to_llvm.cpp
index fc00b0b142..0d92f7377b 100644
--- a/src/libasr/codegen/asr_to_llvm.cpp
+++ b/src/libasr/codegen/asr_to_llvm.cpp
@@ -2776,9 +2776,11 @@ class ASRToLLVMVisitor : public ASR::BaseVisitor<ASRToLLVMVisitor>
             llvm::StructType* array_type = static_cast<llvm::StructType*>(
                 llvm_utils->get_type_from_ttype_t_util(x.m_type, module.get()));
             llvm::Constant *ptr = module->getOrInsertGlobal(x.m_name, array_type);
-            module->getNamedGlobal(x.m_name)->setInitializer(
-                llvm::ConstantStruct::get(array_type,
-                llvm::Constant::getNullValue(array_type)));
+            if (!external) {
+                module->getNamedGlobal(x.m_name)->setInitializer(
+                    llvm::ConstantStruct::get(array_type,
+                    llvm::Constant::getNullValue(array_type)));
+            }
             llvm_symtab[h] = ptr;
         } else if (x.m_type->type == ASR::ttypeType::Logical) {
             llvm::Constant *ptr = module->getOrInsertGlobal(x.m_name,
diff --git a/src/lpython/tests/test_llvm.cpp b/src/lpython/tests/test_llvm.cpp
index 055e052dd9..945f77c72e 100644
--- a/src/lpython/tests/test_llvm.cpp
+++ b/src/lpython/tests/test_llvm.cpp
@@ -1450,6 +1450,23 @@ def my_concat(x: str, y: str) -> str:
     CHECK(std::strcmp(r.result.str, "Python REPL") == 0);
 }
 
+TEST_CASE("PythonCompiler Array 1") {
+    CompilerOptions cu;
+    cu.po.disable_main = true;
+    cu.emit_debug_line_column = false;
+    cu.generate_object_code = false;
+    cu.interactive = true;
+    cu.po.runtime_library_dir = LCompilers::LPython::get_runtime_library_dir();
+    PythonCompiler e(cu);
+    LCompilers::Result<PythonCompiler::EvalResult>
+    r = e.evaluate2("i: i32[10] = empty(10, dtype=int32)");
+    CHECK(r.ok);
+    CHECK(r.result.type == PythonCompiler::EvalResult::statement);
+    r = e.evaluate2("print(i)");
+    CHECK(r.ok);
+    CHECK(r.result.type == PythonCompiler::EvalResult::statement);
+}
+
 TEST_CASE("PythonCompiler asr verify 1") {
     CompilerOptions cu;
     cu.po.disable_main = true;