Tag: Iran

This is something we need to see more of, financially going after the companies who supply the Kim regime with banned goods and technology:

The Donald Trump administration fined Chinese tech giant ZTE a record $1.19 billion Tuesday for selling American telecommunications equipment to Iran and North Korea, breaching sanctions.

Between January 2010 and last April, ZTE conspired to evade U.S. embargoes by obtaining contracts and sales with Iranian entities, including those affiliated with the Tehran government, said the U.S. Department of Commerce, earning it hundreds of millions of dollars.

ZTE, China’s second-largest maker of telecom equipment, is said to have bought American equipment and software and illegally shipped them to Iran, supporting building of large-scale telecommunications networks there.

In addition, ZTE was charged in connection with 283 shipments of telecommunications equipment to North Korea, with knowledge it violated U.S. Export Administration Regulations.

The civil and criminal penalty of a combined $1.19 billion is the largest fine levied by the United States in a sanctions case.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

The missile that Iran recently test had some believing they may have tested North Korea’s Musudan missile.  According to one expert the test by Iran was not a Musudan they have had one successful flight test of, but likely an equivalent of North Korea’s No Dong missile that North Korea has a long history of successful flight tests with:

Chances are low that the ballistic missile recently test-fired by Iran could have been North Korea’s Musudan intermediate range ballistic missile, a defense expert said.

Iran launched the missile on Jan. 29, which flew about 1,000 kilometers. Media reports have since surfaced suggesting that the missile could be the same as North Korea’s Musudan missile, which, if confirmed, would mean missile cooperation between the two countries is still ongoing.

But Michael Elleman, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said in an article carried by the website 38 North that there is little possibility that the Iranians have tested the Musudan.

“If the Iranian missile were modeled on the 3,000 kilometer-range Musudan, it would be an intermediate-range ballistic missile, contrary to the U.S. description of the Khorramshahr as a medium-range ballistic missile,” Elleman said.

While the July 2016 and January 2017 test flights conducted by Iran were largely successful, North Korea’s tests of the Musudan failed soon after launch in six of eight attempts, a wide discrepancy that is difficult to explain even if Iran is more capable at missile development, he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Navy skipper detained by Iran this January believes his deference prevented war. https://t.co/lP43n7erVQ

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) September 12, 2016

South Korean President Park Geun-hye meets with young Iranians in traditional Korean dresses, who visited a Korean culture exhibition held at a convention center in Tehran on May 2, 2016. Earlier in the day, Park held the first bilateral summit since the establishment of their diplomatic ties in 1962. (Yonhap)

Well it looks like it was worth President Park wearing a headscarf during her trip to Iran because she was able to sign a number of agreements that could lead to multi-billion dollar construction projects in Iran:

President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday South Korea and Iran can produce a win-win situation if they work together in infrastructure projects in the Islamic Republic.  Iran is pushing to rebuild an economy and modernize its infrastructure after the U.N. lifted sanctions in a follow-up to a landmark deal reached with the United States and five world powers over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

 

“I am here to pursue the path of common prosperity with old friend Iran,” Park said in a forum attended by some 450 South Korean and Iranian business executives and leaders in the Iranian capital.  On Monday, Park and her Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani observed the signing of nearly 20 out of 66 memorandums of understanding worth up to US$45.6 billion after their summit.  Seoul hopes the MOUs could pave the way for South Korean companies to eventually win massive infrastructure projects under way in Iran.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

When dealing with the Middle East actions speak louder than words and so far there has been no action on Iran’s part to support their recent rhetoric:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggested Monday that his country is opposed to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, a move that underscores growing pressure on the communist country.

“We cheer for peace on the Korean Peninsula and we are, in principle, opposed to any nuclear development,” Rouhani said through a translator in a joint news conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye after their summit in Tehran.

“Our basic position is that nuclear weapons should be removed from the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East.”

Rouhani’s comments are the latest act of international pressure being exerted on North Korea to give up its nuclear program and end its provocations.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Image via KBS World Radio. 

What strikes out at me in regards to President Park’s visit to Iran is that she is wearing a veil.  What made this jump out at me was that I remembered that she did not wear a veil when she visited Saudi Arabia last year:

President Park Geun-hye (left) meets with Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the king of Saudi Arabia, during a bilateral summit. They discuss ways to strengthen bilateral relations across a range of sectors. [Korea.net]

She is not only wearing a veil, but one that is covering not only her hair, but her entire neck.  According to this Korea Times article President Park was trying to show respect for Iranian customs and culture.  How about the Iranian government show respect to her and understand she is a head of state of one of the world’s great country’s and should not be subjugated to Iranian customs.  If Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ever visits South Korea does anyone think we will see them dressed up in a hanbok in respect to Korean culture?

Maybe while President Park is in Tehran she can tell the ayatollahs to stop selling missile and nuclear technology that is being used to threaten the existence of her country:

South Korean President Park Geun-hye left for Tehran on Sunday on a historic trip meant to boost political and economic relations between the two countries.

Park is set to meet with her Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, on Monday in the first meeting between the leaders of the two countries since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations in 1962.

The summit will set the tone for relations at a time when the Islamic Republic has emerged as a promising market following the lifting of international sanctions earlier this year.

“We expect the trip to serve as an occasion to take a new leap forward in bilateral ties, which have been stalled due to the international sanctions,” said Kim Kyou-hyun, a senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs.

The U.N. has lifted sanctions on Iran in a follow-up to a nuclear deal reached with the United States and five world powers over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I guess this means we will no longer see any defenders of the 1994 Agreed Framework considering one of the nation’s top Democrats has now disavowed it:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday the recent landmark deal on Iran’s nuclear program grew out of “the failure of the North Korea experience.”

Kerry also said that Iran and North Korea are different, defending the Iranian deal during a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing as Republican senators raised concern the Iranian deal could fall apart like the 1994 nuclear deal with North Korea.

“Iran has also agreed to accept the additional protocol, and the additional protocol is an outgrowth of the failure of the North Korea experience, which put in additional access requirements precisely so that we do know what Iran is doing,” Kerry said.

The 1994 deal with North Korea, known as the Agreed Framework, required North Korea to freeze and ultimately dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for economic and political concessions. But the deal fell apart after the North was found to have been running a secret nuclear program in late 2002.

Kerry stressed that Iran is different from the North.

“Unlike North Korea, that created a nuclear weapon and exploded one and pulled out of the NPT (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty), Iran has done none of that,” he said.

The North Korea experience is “what gave birth to the additional protocol” in the Iranian deal, Kerry said.  [Yonhap]

I can still remember the good old days when Democrats claimed the failure of the Agreed Framework was all Bush’s fault.  How times have changed.

This deal with Iran does not mean much for North Korea because they have already gone down this road two times before with two different US presidential administrations and cheated on the deals both times.

The South’s unification minister, Hong Yong-pyo, was blunt in comments Tuesday about what to expect. “Conclusion of Iranian negotiations will not lead to solution of the nuclear problem” in North Korea he told foreign correspondents here. But as the North now represents “the only country … to exercise nuclear power to intimidate the rest of the world…the agreement will at least give some pressure on North Korea.”

It is not known whether negotiators in Vienna discussed or agreed privately to address the broader issue of Tehran’s assistance or cooperation with Pyongyang.

WILL TEHRAN STOP AIDING PYONGYANG?

Analysts like Scott Snyder of the Council on Foreign Relations say that how North Korea now responds to the new deal “ultimately will depend on whether US negotiators also have a tacit understanding with Iran to curtail questionable relationships with North Korea in these areas.” If North Korea “loses another customer,” Mr. Snyder believes, “Pyongyang may take notice.”

So far Pyongyang has kept its silence. The North Korean media has yet to report on the historic accord with Iran, much less offer any commentary.

The Iran deal does give Pyongyang something new to worry about, says Mark Fitzpatrick at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “I bet their gut reaction will be along the lines of, ‘We are more isolated than ever, with even Iran making peace with Washington,’” he says.  [Christian Science Monitor]

You can read the rest, but if anything the Iranians took solace in the fact that the North Koreans were able to cheat on their deals for many years with the US turning a blind eye to their activities due to other pressing concerns in the world at the time.  If the North Koreans feel like they can cut yet another deal and get a lot free goodies for little or nothing in return they would probably do it.  However, I don’t think the Obama administration is going to be as eager to cut a deal with North Korea simply because of their history of cheating on past deals.  As always time will tell.