U.K. Deports Two North Korean Insurance Firm Officials
What I am wondering is why were these people allowed to operate in the U.K. in the first place considering North Korea’s long history of using insurance fraud to bring in foreign currency:
Britain has effectively deported two London-based officials of North Korea’s state insurance firm by refusing to renew their visas after the firm was slapped with sanctions in the wake of Pyongyang’s January nuclear test, a diplomatic source said.
In April, Britain blacklisted the North’s Korea National Insurance Corp. and its London office in line with European Union sanctions imposed after the North’s fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in February.
“It’s part of implementation of sanctions to deny visas for those working for a sanctioned entity,” a source said. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link.
Further reading:
https://www.rokdrop.net/2010/03/north-korea-reportedly-has-4-billion-in-european-banks/
“What I am wondering is why were these people allowed to operate in the U.K. in the first place considering North Korea’s long history of using insurance fraud to bring in foreign currency.”
North Korea and the UK have normal diplomatic relations and the UK operates pretty much like the US does in terms of the law – your innocent until proven guilty. So there wasn’t much the UK could do based only on NK front companies having a history of insurance fraud in other countries. But it looks like they found another way to deal with it after all. So all’s well that ends well.