Rep. Won Yoo-chul of South Korea’s ruling Liberty Korea Party stages a protest in front of the Seoul-based Chinese Embassy on March 4, 2017, against China’s economic retaliation over the country’s plan to install an advanced missile defense system. (Yonhap)
A street located on the southern resort island of Jeju remains silent on March 4, 2017, after China reportedly ordered local travel agencies to stop selling tour products for South Korea. China has been expressing strong hostility toward South Korea’s decision to allow the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system in the country. (Yonhap)
It seems selling weapons to various countries in Africa is a major money maker for the Kim regime,
North Korean ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam arrives in Uganda.
North Korean weapons barred by U.N. sanctions ended up in the hands of U.N. peacekeepers in Africa, a confidential report says. That incident and others in more than a half-dozen African nations show how North Korea, despite facing its toughest sanctions in decades, continues to avoid them on the world’s most impoverished continent with few repercussions.
The annual report by a U.N. panel of experts on North Korea, obtained by The Associated Press, illustrates how Pyongyang evades sanctions imposed for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs to cooperate “on a large scale,” including military training and construction, in countries from Angola to Uganda.
Among the findings was the “largest seizure of ammunition in the history of sanctions” against North Korea, with 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades found hidden under iron ore that was destined for Egypt in a cargo vessel heading toward the Suez Canal. The intended destination of the North Korean-made grenades, seized in August, was not clear.
A month before that, the report says, a U.N. member state seized an air shipment destined for a company in Eritrea containing military radio communications items. It was the second time military-related items had been caught being exported from North Korea to Eritrea “and confirms ongoing arms-related cooperation between the two countries.” Eritrea is also under U.N. sanctions for supporting armed groups in the Horn of Africa.
Discovering such evasions is challenging because Africa has the world’s lowest rate of reporting on monitoring U.N. sanctions on North Korea. Just 11 of its 54 countries turned in reports to the panel of experts last year, the U.N. report says.
“African enforcement tends to be lax,” Marcus Noland, an expert on North Korea at the Petersen Institute for International Economics, wrote last month, adding that “North Korea may deliberately target African countries as a circumvention strategy.” He said North Korea’s long military involvement in Africa, and its growing interest in trade there to reduce its deep dependence on China, “bring the continent’s relationship with North Korea into increasing conflict with tightening U.N. sanctions.” [Associated Press]
You can read the rest at the link, but it may be time to start actively targeting these countries doing arms deals with North Korea with financial sanctions as well.
Just another example of how the Olympics has become a professional sports league which even has its own free agency period:
Canadian-born ice hockey player Brock Radunske, second from right, speaks with his teammates in the national team in this file photo taken March 27, 2013 at the ice rink of the National Training Center in Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-cheol
Since the Canadian-born ice hockey player Brock Radunske joined Anyang Halla to become the first naturalized Korean athlete, five more foreign-born players have migrated to Korea. Matt Dalton, Eric Reagan, Brian Young and Michael Swift are all from Canada and Mike Testwuide is American-born.
The six foreign-born athletes are now playing for Korea’s national team, making the once homogeneous team diverse. Foreign-born athletes account for nearly 25 percent of the 25-member men’s hockey team.
Jim Paek, the national hockey team manager, said diversity has made the men’s ice hockey team stronger. [Korea Times]
I wonder how many arrests it takes to get jailed in South Korea for DUIs? Obviously three is not the number:
Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Kang Jung-ho arrives at the Seoul Central District Court on March 3, 2017, to attend a verdict hearing on his DUI charges. (Yonhap)
Pittsburgh Pirates’ third baseman Kang Jung-ho received a suspended sentence Friday for driving under the influence of alcohol.
The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Kang to eight months in prison, which is to be suspended for two years, for leaving the scene of a DUI accident in Seoul on Dec. 2.
Prosecutors had sought a summary order with a fine of 15 million won ($US13,000) on Kang. But the court determined Kang’s case was serious enough that it must be processed through a trial.
The ruling clears the path for Kang to travel to the United States and join the Pirates in spring training long underway. Kang has had to stay in Seoul for his trial on Feb. 22 and verdict hearing Friday. [Yonhap]
Sung Yu-ri, a singer-turned-actress, attends a ceremony in Seoul on March 3, 2017, for the Taxpayers’ Day. Sung was one of the celebrities awarded at the ceremony as a model taxpayer. (Yonhap)
The next time someone gets drunk and violent on an airplane there are now tougher laws for South Korean authorities to punish them with:
The government is toughening penalties for violent behavior on passenger planes.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Thursday said the National Assembly passed a revision to aviation laws whereby violent passengers who threaten flight safety now face up to 10 years in prison, and five years even when their actions do not endanger a flight.
The revision, which mostly doubles the old penalties, came after a high-profile incident in December last year, when a drunk passenger went on a rampage on a Korean Air flight that carried 80s crooner Richard Marx and therefore made international headlines. [Chosun Ilbo]
