This photo, released by North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper on March 7, 2017, shows four ballistic missiles being fired during a drill at the Hwasong artillery units of the North Korean Army’s Strategic Force. The paper, published by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, said the North’s top leader Kim Jong-un inspected the drill. North Korea on the previous day fired four ballistic missiles from an area near Tongchang-ri in northwest North Korea. They flew as far as 1,000 kilometers before landing within or very close to Japan’s exclusive economic zone. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
It appears that the family of the assassinated Kim Jong-nam are in deep hiding, but the eldest child Kim Han-sol has released a Youtube video thanking China, the US and the Netherlands for their assistance:
Kim Han-sol
Kim Han-sol, the eldest son of Kim Jong-nam, who was assassinated last month at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, delivered a message in a video posted online. It appeared that he, his mother and sister were being sheltered or otherwise aided by China, the U.S. and the Netherlands.
“My name is Kim Han-sol. I am from North Korea,” says the young man in the video, who calls himself, “part of the Kim family,” referring to the dynasty that has ruled North Korea with an iron fist for three generations, starting from his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the state’s founder, in 1948.
The man in the video is highly likely to be Kim Han-sol, who gave a TV interview in 2012 to Elisabeth Rehn, a former lawmaker and minister of defense in Finland. In the 2012 interview, he called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a “dictator.”
To prove his identity, the man shows a North Korean diplomatic passport, but when he opens it to show its identification page, the image is blacked out on camera.
“My father has been killed a few days ago I am currently with my mother and sister,” said Kim. “And we are very grateful to …” The rest of that sentence is cut off.
At the end of the 40-second video, Kim said, “We hope this will get better soon.”
Kim does not reveal his location nor the filming date. A group called Cheollima Civil Defense uploaded the video at around 7 a.m. Wednesday on YouTube. Cheollima in Korean means a horse that can travel up to 400 kilometers (248 miles) a day. A message below the clip reads in Korean: “To the people of North Korea.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
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]
