Tag: sanctions

Kim Jong-un’s new BFF has done him a solid by blocking UN enforcement of sanctions against North Korea:

A veto Thursday by Russia ended monitoring of U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is seeking to avoid scrutiny as it allegedly violates the sanctions to buy weapons from Pyongyang for its war in Ukraine.

Russia’s turnaround on the U.N. monitoring reflects how Moscow’s growing animosity with the U.S. and its Western allies since the start of the Ukraine war has made it difficult to reach consensus on even issues where there has been longstanding agreement.

The veto came during a vote on a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have extended the mandate of a panel of experts monitoring sanctions on North Korea for a year, but which will now halt its operation when its current mandate expires at the end of April.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Good luck with enforcing sanctions on North Korea as long as they share land borders with China and Russia who will continue to enable them:

South Korea and the United States have launched a task force to effectively block North Korea from financing its unlawful nuclear and missile programs, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.

The inaugural meeting of the South Korea-U.S. bilateral Enhanced Disruption Task Force was held at Washington, D.C., on Tuesday (local time) with over 30 officials in areas of diplomacy, intelligence, sanctions and maritime interdiction, according to the ministry.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed ways to counter illicit efforts by North Korea to circumvent sanctions concerning the procurement of refined petroleum, stressing that importing refined oil in excess of the U.N.-mandated cap violates U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

They also highlighted the need for close cooperation to counter the North’s ability to procure petroleum, including from Russia, saying it directly contributes to the reclusive country’s military readiness and its weapons development.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if these sanctions will actually do anything or are they just for show because wouldn’t China have to enforce them?:

The U.S. on Thursday imposed sanctions on a North Korean husband and wife living in Beijing accused of helping to procure equipment for ballistic missiles that ended up in the hands of North Korean and Iranian customers.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said Choe Chol Min and his wife Choe Un Jong work through North Korea’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences, a state organization that conducts research for the nation’s ballistics missiles program, to help procure equipment for buyers.

Treasury says Choe Chol Min worked with North Korean weapons trading officials to buy equipment for Iranian customers. His wife is accused of coordinating at least one order for dual-use bearings that are used in North Korean ballistic missile production.

The isolated Asian nation uses a network of representatives in foreign countries, including China and Iran, to illegally import restricted materials used to create ballistic missiles and other weapons in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, Treasury said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The real story here is why would a major underwear company want to work with the Kim regime to smuggle money into North Korea? What did they get in return? Was anyone in the Gyeongi-do government in on this? Are other so called NGOs doing the same thing to circumvent sanctions? That’s what I want to know:

Prosecution took into custody a man suspected of colluding with Ssangbangwool Group to smuggle huge sums of foreign currency into North Korea about three years ago, according to judicial sources.

The Suwon District Prosecutors Office apprehended the chief of the Asia Pacific Exchange Association, a Seoul-based nongovernmental organization, at an unidentified place in Seoul where he was hiding out, on charges of violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.

Prosecutors have been investigating allegations that Ssangbangwool, South Korea’s leading underwear company, secretly sent millions of US dollars to China in 2019 and that the money was sent to North Korea.

They allege that dozens of Ssangbangwool executives and employees took part in the alleged currency smuggling by hiding dollars inside books on their trips to China to deliver them to North Korea.

Prosecutors suspect the man, only identified by his surname An, played a role in the crime.

Ssangbangwool and the NGO are suspected of handing $1.5 million and US$500,000, respectively, to the North.

Prosecutors are also looking into possibility that support funds the NGO received from Gyeonggi Province were part of the money sent to the North.

The province surrounding Seoul provided about 2 billion won ($1.46 million) to the NGO on two occasions between 2018-19 for an event where North Korean officials attended, and delivered flour and saplings to the North.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Kim Jong-un is supposedly feeling the pressure of sanctions and the pandemic which if true only increases the odds of him starting a provocation cycle out once the new U.S. Presidential administration takes power:

Anchor: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is reported to have had at least two people executed in an irrational response to the combined pressure of sanctions, COVID-19 and flood damage. That’s according to lawmakers who attended the National Intelligence Service’s briefing to the parliamentary intelligence committee on Friday.
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: 

[Sound bite: Rep. Ha Tae-keung – People Power Party (Korean-English translation)]
“Kim Jong-un is displaying an excessive anger and taking irrational measures [over the pandemic and its economic impact].” 

South Korea’s intelligence agency says North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is responding “irrationally” to the economic difficulties the regime is facing, such as inflation and a decline in industrial activity.

According to Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the parliamentary intelligence committee, the National Intelligence Service(NIS) reported the situation to lawmakers on Friday, including details of the recent execution of a foreign currency changer in Pyongyang.

[Sound bite: Rep. Ha Tae-keung – People Power Party (Korean-English translation)]
“For example, North Korea executed a high-profile money changer in Pyongyang in late October after holding the person responsible for falling exchange rates… Other irrational measures include North Korea banning fishing and salt production at sea to prevent sea water from being infected with the virus.”

Sources explained the North Korean won-dollar exchange rate has fallen as Pyongyang banned the use of the U.S. dollar at home in a bid to curtail inflation.

North Korean people can no longer spend U.S. dollars to purchase smuggled goods either due to the strict Sino-North Korea border closure amid the coronavirus pandemic.  

Rep. Ha quoted the intelligence agency as saying that another key official was also executed in August for violating a ban on imports amid toughened quarantine control measures caused by the pandemic.

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link.

South Korea’s Unification Minister nominee has essentially said that he plans to find ways to work around sanctions to pay off North Korea:

The government has hinted that it will seek to revamp the beleaguered South Korea-U.S. working group, a forum to coordinate North Korea-related issues, as part of its plan to push for more inter-Korean cooperation.

The organization, set up in November 2018, has taken flak for allegedly hindering progress in inter-Korean ties due to its excessively harsh standards adopted on Pyongyang, and there have been growing calls here for restructuring its operation or even dismantling it. 

Lee In-young, the unification minister nominee, said Monday that he plans to distinguish what the government can do on its own with the North from what it can do under the format of the working group. 

“If I take office, I will review what the working group has done so far and take additional measures (to promote inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation), based on my ideas regarding inter-Korean affairs,” Lee told reporters upon arriving at the Office of Inter-Korean Dialogue to prepare for his National Assembly confirmation hearing.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but as I have been saying this is why the Kim regime blew up the Inter-Korean Liaison Office; to force North Korea to separate from the U.S.’s North Korea policy and violate sanctions. If South Korea finds ways to violate sanctions that will be a green light to other nations to do so as well.