Tag: nuclear program

It looks like Japan does not want to be left out of the upcoming negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

With North Korea now engaged with South Korea and getting ready for talks with the U.S., it looks like Japan doesn’t want to be left out.  Tokyo says that if the North agrees to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities it’s willing to foot the initial costs up to 300 million yen, or about 2.8 million dollars.  That’s according to Kyodo News Agency, citing multiple Japanese government officials.  Analysts say Japan is trying to make sure it has a voice in the process of North Korea’s denuclearization and related discussions.

The Kyodo report went on to say that Japan will continue to pressure North Korea into taking concrete action on the nuclear issue.  Pyongyang hasn’t allowed in nuclear inspectors from the IAEA since 2009.  Inspections of its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon would cost up to around 3.7 million dollars, so Japan’s proposed contribution would foot most of the bill.  [Arirang News]

You would think the regime would want to keep these scientists alive to advance their nuclear program instead of continuously shuffling through scientists as they get sick and die if this defector’s story is true:

Lee’s husband had the mind of a boy, constantly craved food, she said, was sexually dysfunctional and had suffered some sort of mental problem that had diminished his memory. He also became violent towards his wife.

“We have heard of many cases of women forced into marriages with men who were put to work on the North’s nuclear programmes becoming the victims of domestic violence,” said Lee Ae-ran (above), president of the NGO.

Other women described life with these men as “torture” because the men they had been forced to marry “were monsters, not human beings”.

“We hear that many nuclear scientists in the North die or become disabled before the age of 40 as a result of their exposure to radiation,” she added.  [South China Morning Post]

You can read more at the link.

She is probably one of many Chinese companies aiding the North Korean regime.  However, she for whatever reason may be the one being used by Beijing to show the US that the Chinese are “doing something” to rein in North Korea:

A Chinese businesswoman under U.S. scrutiny for her alleged role in aiding North Korea’s nuclear program is also a suspect in a Chinese criminal investigation into her trading business, a corporate filing shows.

Friday’s disclosure about Ma Xiaohong is the first to tie her to a criminal investigation. Police in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning said earlier this month that they were investigating the trading firm that Ms. Ma founded, Hongxiang Industrial Development Co., for alleged “serious economic crimes,” without naming her.  (………………)

The investigation into Ms. Ma and her company appears to mark a new effort by U.S. and Chinese authorities to pursue Chinese businesses that are suspected of supporting North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program. The U.S. and China have often sparred over how best to rein in North Korea.

Earlier this month, Pyongyang conducted its fifth atomic test in a decade.

Liaoning police announced their investigation after prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice made two trips to Beijing last month to alert Chinese officials about alleged activities by Ms. Ma and Hongxiang Industrial, The Wall Street Journal reported this week.

The Justice Department cited alleged evidence that the businesswoman and her company had aided Pyongyang’s nuclear program and its efforts to evade United Nations and Western sanctions, according to U.S. officials.

It isn’t known if the Liaoning police probe is related to the U.S. allegations.  [Wall Street Journal]

You can read more at the link.