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]
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.
Besides expelling the North Korean ambassador the government of Malaysia should close the embassy entirely:
North Korean embassy in Malaysia.
The Malaysian foreign ministry has cited North Korean Ambassador Kang Chol’s refusal to accept formal summons as the reason for its decision to expel him, official sources said Sunday.
On Saturday, Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced its decision to kick out North Korea’s ambassador, ordering him to leave the country by Monday 6 p.m.
The decision was the latest in a series of punitive actions Malaysia has taken in response to North Korea’s assassination of leader Kim Jong-un’s estranged half brother Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13.
Kang was told to show up for a meeting with a Malaysian foreign ministry official on Saturday evening, but neither he nor the North Korean Embassy responded, the Malaysian foreign ministry said in its statement. It said this failure to respond to the summons as the reason for Kang’s expulsion. [Yonhap]
As everyone has seen the US government has been filled with leakers ever since President Trump took office and here is the latest leak:
A White House internal review of strategy on North Korea features the possibility of both military force as well as regime change in order to thwart Pyongyang’s nuclear-weapons threat, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday citing sources familiar with the process.
The strategy review, reported to have begun a fortnight ago, combined with U.S. President Donald Trump‘s January vow to prevent North Korea from ever testing intercontinental ballistic missiles. The report – which could not be verified by CNBC – hints at a possible shift in U.S. foreign policy which could potentially rattle allies of both nations. [CNBC]
A strategy review is just that, a review of different strategic options to address the North Korean threat which military strikes and regime change has long been potential options. I am sure there are other options in the report to include negotiations or the strategic patience option the Obama administration followed. Just because a report has military options does not mean he is going to use them. I bet the Obama administration had similar reports that looked at the viability of military options as well.
This looks like another example of media sensationalism to me.
A total of six North Korean soldiers armed with weapons crossed into China, prompting Chinese authorities to track their whereabouts, a source said Thursday.
The North Korean soldiers deserted their posts along the border area with China and illegally entered Changbai County in the country’s northeastern province of Jilin on Tuesday, according to the source.
“Chinese authorities notified residents to be on alert and immediately report their location if they are observed,” the source added. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can’t put nothing passed the Kim regime, but I doubt they would sell the large amount of VX nerve gas needed to launch a massive terrorist strike. If they sold the nerve agent it was linked back to them it would lead to a retaliatory strike or worse regime removal. It doesn’t seem like it would be worth the risk to them even if they are cash strapped:
The use of the nerve agent VX in the killing of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korea’s leader, raises the dangerous specter of a cash-strapped Pyongyang ultimately selling such a chemical weapon to terrorist groups like al-Qaida, a former senior diplomat warned Wednesday.
The use of VX added to mounting evidence that North Korea was behind Kim’s killing in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13. VX is a chemical agent listed as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations and its use is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which the North is not a signatory.
Eight North Koreans have been named as suspects, but the North has denied its involvement.
“The specter of chemical weapons proliferation, of VX in the hands of terrorists, now looms ever larger,” James Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state, said in an article in the Politico.
“The apparent shipment from North Korea to Malaysia of VX — a lethal substance banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention — is a brazen violation of international law despite the fact that North Korea is not a signatory to the convention,” he said. [Yonhap]
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