Category: North Korea

I have always said that the Kim regime is not going to feel the real effect of sanctions until the Chinese banks are sanctioned. Hopefully this is a sign of the U.S. government more aggressively going after Chinese banks:

The U.S. government has charged 28 North Korean and five Chinese individuals with facilitating more than $2.5 billion in illegal payments for Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile program as part of a clandestine global network operating from countries including China, Russia, Libya and Thailand.

In a 50-page federal indictment unsealed Thursday in Washington, D.C., the Justice Department accused the individuals of acting as agents of North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank, in what officials say is the largest North Korean sanctions violations case charged by the U.S.

Working for the FTB — which is North Korea’s primary foreign currency bank and under sanctions for facilitating nuclear proliferation — the agents allegedly set up more than 250 front companies and covert bank branches around the world to mask payments transiting the U.S. financial system, including through several Chinese banks and for equipment from Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp., according to charging documents. (…….)

The massive enforcement action comes as United Nations experts have detailed North Korea’s widespread evasion of sanctions by using agents of state-owned and other banks overseas to facilitate a global web of illicit oil, arms and coal deals to bring in foreign currency. The efforts have been augmented through offshore, ship-to-ship transfers, large-scalecryptocurrency hacks and ransomware attacks.

Washington Post

A ROK Drop favorite Joshua Stanton from One Free Korea is quoted in the article:

“This adds to the already overwhelming evidence that China’s government is willfully assisting Kim Jong Un in his violations of North Korea sanctions,” said Joshua Stanton, a lawyer who helped write the 2016 law that strengthened North Korea sanctions.

“I’ll believe it’s ‘maximum pressure’ when those banks begin to face nine- and ten-digit penalties, like the ones President (Barack) Obama imposed on European banks that broke Iran sanctions,” Stanton said, and has advised House and Senate staffers on North Korea sanctions law.

According to the article no one is in custody because assuredly the North Koreans and Chinese won’t hand these people over. However, already $63 million in assets have been seized.

Maybe the politics of the coronavirus is finally causing our government to take real action against Chinese banks?

It looks like Kim Jong-un is feeling much better after having not been seen publicly in three weeks:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over a Central Military Commission meeting and discussed “new policies for further increasing the nuclear war deterrence of the country,” state media reported Sunday.

Also discussed at the enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party were important military steps and organizational and political measures to further bolster up the overall armed forces, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

“Set forth at the meeting were new policies for further increasing the nuclear war deterrence of the country and putting the strategic armed forces on a high alert operation in line with the general requirements for the building and development of the armed forces of the country,” the KCNA said.

It did not elaborate what the “new policies” for nuclear deterrence were.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Just in case anyone was wondering:

The official newspaper of North Korea has denied that the regime’s leaders can magically bend time and space, putting to bed a long tradition used to idolise the mystical powers of Kim Jong-un and former leader Kim Jong-il.

In the latest sign that the secretive regime is turning away from myth-making about its leaders, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper this week denied that the Kim family are masters of “chukjibeop”, a method of folding space and travelling great distances in a short period of time.

Chukjibeop is one of the myths that has been used by the North to deify its leaders.

The newspaper, the organ of the North’s ruling party, said: “In realistic terms, a person cannot suddenly disappear and reappear by folding space.”

On Thursday, an official at South Korea’s unification ministry said that the current regime’s trend of demystification is “noteworthy”.

“It appears to stress patriotism and love for the people rather than mystification of the leaders,” the official told Yonhap news agency.

The Telegraph

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the health of Kim Jong-un from ROK intelligence:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears not to have undergone surgery, a presidential official said Sunday, flatly denying speculation over Kim’s health.

“There were media reports speculating about Chairman Kim’s surgery, citing a change in the way he walks,” a senior Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters, saying the presidential office judges this not to be true.

When asked whether the North Korean leader did not even go through a relatively moderate medical procedure, the official replied yes.

The official, who asked not to be named, however, refused to unveil the grounds that this judgment was made upon.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I still think if he had anything done maybe it was a minor surgery such as on his ankle again or maybe they scoped his knee. These are simple surgeries that he would want time to recover from so he is not seen limping around.