Tag: North Korea

The intelligence the US had must have been indisputable because the ROK government is now admitting that they did in fact allow in shipments of North Korean coal:

South Korea received 6.6 billion won ($5.86 million) worth of North Korean coal and pig iron, of which the country of origin was fabricated, the nation’s customs agency said, Friday.

Cheong Wa Dae said there is no conflict between South Korea and the U.S. regarding the issue as the two countries are coordinating closely with mutual trust.

According to the Korea Customs Service (KCS), three South Korean importers brought in 35,038 tons of North Korean coal and pig iron from April through October last year.

They turned out to have used a Russian port as a transit hub, fabricating the materials as Russian coal. They brokered exports of North Korean goods to other countries via Russia, and got North Korean coal as a commission. (……..)

There is concern the confirmation may negatively affect South Korea’s alliance with the United States as well as its relations with North Korea.

“Though the United States has been moving to improve ties with North Korea, engaging in talks, it has been continuing pressure,” said Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

Washington has been firm that sanctions should be maintained until North Korea takes concrete steps for denuclearization.

“As it turned out that South Korea, which is a U.S. ally, violated the sanctions, there will be negative effects,” he said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but remember these are the violations that have been provable, I have to wonder what else has been going on in violation of UN sanctions?

It looks like the cover up of companies shipping North Korean coal into South Korea in violations of UN sanctions is in full effect:

A South Korean coal importing company is being investigated by the customs authority on suspicions of importing what is believed to be North Korean coal and disguising it as being from Russia, government officials have disclosed. Reportedly, this is only one of nine suspicious cases being investigated by the authorities.Misrepresenting the origin of coal counts as illegitimate importing under the Customs Act and the forgery of private documents under the criminal code.

And since importing North Korean coal is banned by UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea (Resolution No. 2371), this could also represent a violation of sanctions, if the coal does turn out to be from North Korea.On Aug. 6, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Korea Customs Service (KCS) met reporters at the Foreign Ministry office in Seoul’s Jongno District and explained the current status of their investigation into the import of coal suspected of being from North Korea.“We were provided with intelligence related to allegations of importing North Korean coal from the relevant government agency in Oct. 2017.

We have been investigating the importer implicated in the intelligence in question and are currently wrapping up that investigation,” said a KCS official. The KCS is planning to announce the details of its investigation when it hands over the case to the prosecutors, after completing the investigation.  [Hankyoreh]

So the investigation has been going on for nearly a year which causes me to believe this is being slow rolled.    Here is what the ROK government is trying to get people to believe:

But until upcoming investigations have run their course, it’s too soon to say whether the coal these companies imported is actually from North Korea. There are a number of possibilities that will have to be determined by investigators. The companies may have actually imported Russian coal; they may have known it was North Korean coal and passed it off as Russian; or they may have been fooled by Russian companies and imported coal without realizing it was from North Korea.

“We’re getting this intelligence from an ally, and the intelligence itself does not constitute definitive proof that the coal is from North Korea,” said an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I get the feeling this investigation will lead no where, but I guess we will see.

There is no reason why this travel ban should be allowed to expire.  The North Koreans have never come clean about what happened to Otto Warmbier and allowing Americans to travel to North Korea gives the Kim regime a fresh pool of hostages to grab when the current negotiations inevitably collapse:

A U.S. ban on its citizens traveling to North Korea is expected to expire at the end of this month.

The U.S. government announced on Aug. 2 last year that U.S. passport holders were banned from traveling to North Korea for a year. The ban took effect on Sept. 1.

There has been no announcement from the U.S. government of an extension.

The travel ban followed the death of U.S. college student Otto Wombier, who suffered brain damage after he was detained by North Korea.  [Korea Times]

Prominent North Korean defector Thae Yong-ho who is also a candidate for the most hated person by South Korean leftists who they haven’t put in jail yet, has started his own English language blog.  In his recent posting he discusses how Kim Jong-un has no intention to denuclearize and is strengthening the Anti-Imperialist Education within North Korea against South Korea:

The reality is that when North Korea’s Kim Jong-un came out to the inter-Korean Summit and US-North Korean Summit, he had no intention of giving up his nuclear weapons. It was simply a way to earn time to hold onto his survival by putting on a ‘show’ of pretending to be interested in denuclearization.

While Kim Jong-un thinks that as long as he is in possession of nuclear weapons he will be able to continue the hereditary rule of the Kim family, in actuality,  as long as North Korea has nuclear weapons it will not be treated as a ‘normal state.’ In fact the nuclear weapons will be the malignant tumour that leads to the collapse of the North Korean system.

At this moment in time, South Korean citizens are delighted at the start to an era of forgiveness and cooperation between the two Koreas and think that through these inter-Korean exchanges, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un will change.

However, while Kim Jong-un is pretending to be interested in inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation on the outside; internally, he is intensifying the ‘Anti-Imperialist Education’ and warning his people about getting swept away with the exchange and cooperations with South Korea.  [Thae Yong-ho]

You can read more at the link.

Did Im Jong-seok run away from the Blue House?:

North Korea repatriated a South Korean citizen Tuesday through the border village of Panmunjom in a “positive humanitarian” move, Seoul’s unification ministry said.

In a message to Seoul a day earlier, Pyongyang claimed the 34-year-old, identified only by his surname Suh, illegally entered the country on July 22.

On Monday, the North’s Red Cross informed the South of a plan to send him back, and Seoul accepted the offer.

The North repatriated Suh via Panmunjom at 11 a.m. as scheduled, a ministry official told reporters.

He is under investigation by the South’s authorities into why and how he entered the North. He left for China before July 22, an informed source said.

The government views the North’s repatriation of Suh as “positive from a humanitarian perspective,” the official added.

But six South Korean nationals, including three missionaries, are still detained in the communist nation.  [Yonhap]

It is interesting that President Trump was able to get all the American detainees released, but Moon Jae-in has done nothing to get ROK detainees released.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) tours a catfish farm in Samchon, South Hwanghae Province, in this photo carried on North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Aug. 6, 2018.  (Yonhap)

Here we go with yet another report of the Russians violating UN sanctions:

Russia engaged in more extensive oil exports to North Korea than had been previously reported, by setting up an illicit trade network that is likely still being used today to evade United Nations sanctions, according a South Korean research organization.

A recent report issued by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul used Russian customs data to document how “one North Korean state enterprise purchased 622,878 tons of Russian oil worth $238 million,” between 2015 and 2017.”

While China is North Korea’s main oil supplier, the ASAN estimate for Russian oil exports to North Korea is significantly higher than the $25 million in sales for the same period that was reported by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) in Seoul.

“Smuggling has always been an important element in the cross-border trade between North Korea and it’s important allies. What the Chinese government and the Russian government to a lesser extent have been doing is to turn a blind eye to these activities,” said Go Myong-Hyun, a North Korea analyst with the Asan Institute For Policy Studies in Seoul.  [Voice of America]

You can read much more of how Russia is aiding North Korea’s efforts to get around UN sanctions at the link.

The Moon administration is now playing defense over the reports of ships carrying North Korean coal being allowed to dock in South Korea:

The South Korean government on Tuesday dismissed a report that another foreign vessel carrying North Korean coal has entered a southeastern port in the country, potentially in breach of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

VOA, a U.S.-based broadcaster, reported earlier that a Belize-flagged ship, the Jin Long, docked at South Korea’s southeastern port of Pohang on the weekend and is still believed to be at the port. It cited the MarineTraffic vessel locating service.

The ship had been spotted at the Russian port of Nakhodka, along with black materials believed to be North Korean coal, days before arriving in Pohang, it added.

Rep. Yoo Ki-june, a South Korean opposition lawmaker, also said the freighter suspected of carrying 5,100 tons of North Korean coal is anchored at the Pohang port.

South Korea’s foreign ministry confirmed the entry of the ship itself but said it’s carrying Russian coal.

“There has been no confirmation of a violation of the (U.N.) Security Council resolution in an inspection of the ship by related authorities,” the ministry’s spokesman Noh Kyu-duk said at a press briefing.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but of course the documents are going to say it is “Russian coal”.  These would not be very good smugglers if they are advertising they are shipping North Korean coal.  What are the intelligence agencies saying that it is because they have the assets to determine where the coal actually came from.

Additionally what about the 52 other suspected ships smuggling North Korean coal through South Korean ports over the past year?

Gaesong Industrial Complex was a cash cow for Kim Jong Un. Why is #SouthKorea's prez Moon Jae-in trying so hard to re-open it? https://t.co/yHb1C8FZe6

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) August 5, 2018

You would think this would be bigger news that the South Korean government is intentionally allowing North Korea to violate sanctions using their ports 52 times over the past year:

An opposition lawmaker claimed Sunday that three more foreign vessels suspected of carrying North Korean coal, a banned item under international sanctions, entered South Korean ports 52 times since August last year.

Yoo Ki-june of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party made the claim, arguing that the Seoul government did not take due steps such as the interdiction of the suspicious vessels in line with U.N. Security Council (UNSC) mandates.

Adopted in December last year following the North’s launch of a long-range missile, UNSC Resolution 2397 allows a country to capture and look into a vessel suspected of engaging in prohibited activities with North Korea. Resolution 2371, passed in August last year, imposes a blanket ban on the overseas sale of North Korean coal, iron ore and other mineral resources.

Yoo’s argument came amid media speculation that Seoul, which has been pushing for inter-Korean rapprochement, has not been thoroughly monitoring foreign vessels that enter South Korea with North Korean coal disguised as Russian products, possibly in violation of the sanctions regime.  [Yonhap]

It is bad enough that the Chinese and the Russians are helping the North Koreans to bypass the coal sanctions and new the ROK is as well.  If President Trump wants to Tweet about something, this should be it.