Archive for June 2009

A North Korean Connection to Those Counterfeit Bonds?

June 28, 2009 Counterfeiting, Money Laundering, NK Crime, Sanctions One comment

counterfeit-bonds.jpgIt’s very short on specifics, but it’s the first published report affirmatively linking those fake bonds to North Korea:

An Italian newspaper reports a recent mysterious case involving US$134.5 billion worth of counterfeit bonds has a North Korea connection. Earlier this month two Japanese nationals were caught in Italy allegedly trying to smuggle the bonds into Switzerland.

Il Messaggero says the fake bonds may have been manufactured in North Korea since the two men are North Korean agents and are believed to have been seeking to purchase weapons.  [Chosun Ilbo]

When the Justice Department first indicted the former IRA terrorist, Stalinist splinter cell leader, and alleged supernote co-conspirator Sean Garland, it claimed that one of the purposes of the plot was to destroy the U.S. economy.  North Korea appears not to have printed anywhere near enough supernotes to do that, but printing good facsimiles of bearer bonds worth billions would be another matter entirely.  Fortunately, the bonds appear to have been obvious fakes, despite the good quality of the printing:

“They are all fraudulent, it’s obvious. We don’t even have paper securities outstanding for that value,” said Mckayla Braden, senior adviser for public affairs at the Bureau of Public Debt at the US Treasury department. “This type of scam has been going on for years.”

The Treasury has not issued physical Treasury bonds since the 1980s ““ they are handled electronically ““ though they still issue savings bonds in paper format.

In Washington a US Secret Service official said the agency, which is working with the Italian authorities, believed the bonds were fake.  [Financial Times]

I will note that the Financial Times had reported that police speculation had originally focused on the Italian mafia, based on a previous alleged scam done jointly with crooked bankers in Venzuela.  That report was printed ten days ago, however, so it’s possible that the investigation has developed further since then.

Either way, it seems odd that Italian police later released the two Japanese men, despite having caught them with the bonds in false-bottom suitcases.  Although both men were holding Japanese passports, the Japanese government professes not to have been told who these guys were.

Previous posts on North Korean supernote counterfeiting here and here.

U.S. Won’t Board Suspected N. Korean Arms Ship

June 26, 2009 "United" Nations, China, Proliferation 6 comments

The North Korean ship Kang Nam I may be carrying missiles to Burma, and then again, it may be headed for a stopover in Burma as it transits to points west.  And then again, it may merely be carrying “small” arms and bullets for shooting dissidents and uppity monks (for which their next of kin will be duly billed).  The official Burmese version is that they aren’t expecting the Kang Nam I in any of their ports.

For some reason, however, the U.S.S. John S. McCain has tracked the Kang Nam I all the way from the Yellow Sea though the Taiwan Strait at taxpayer expense, just so that we can flash a green light at it:

The United States will not use force to inspect a North Korean ship suspected of carrying banned goods, an American official was quoted as saying Friday.

An American destroyer has been shadowing the North Korean freighter sailing off China’s coast, possibly on its way to Myanmar.  [AP]

Whatever the Chinese slipped in Ban Ki Moon’s drink has had the desired effect; this is how U.N. resolutions die within weeks of being passed.  Through the simple artifice of allying itself with other nations that are willing to disregard the U.N.’s writ, North Korea can flout its practical impunity to proliferate at will.  Tell me I’m wrong:

Flournoy said the U.S. still has “incentives and disincentives that will get North Korea to change course.”

“Everything remains on the table, but we’re focused on implementing the resolution fully, responsibly and with our international partners,” she said.

Given that we were still seeking the cooperation of those “partners” a few days ago, I can see how our smart, tough new diplomacy worked for us.  Those partners can be forgiven for reaching the same conclusion that I did — that there’s no apparent legal authority in UNSCR 1874 or anywhere else to board this ship by force.

Of course, they could also be forgiven for concluding (as I also did) that some liberties must be taken with any law that becomes a gift certificate for a session with Dr. Kevorkian.  The best venue for taking those liberties might have been the Strait of Malacca, where the Kang Nam I would have had to pass within the territorial waters of Singapore, Malaysia, and/or Indonesia.

So now, all that’s really left to do is to awaken in rage at how China has spent the last two decades date-raping our diplomats and the entire United Nations while it helped North Korea go nuclear and shielded it from the consequences of doing so.  Which brings us right back to the same “incentives” and hobbled disincentives that never worked before and never will.

Say, do you taste something funny in your drink?  Me neither.

The KCNA Drinking Game

June 26, 2009 Propaganda 2 comments

Take two drinks; they said “brigandish” two more times.

Nothing Says “Democratic Peoples’ Republic” Like a New S-Class

June 26, 2009 "United" Nations, China & Korea, Kremlinology No comments

A recent report claims that even as North Korea was preparing missile and nuclear tests, China helped North Korea flout a U.N. Security Council Resolution for which it voted and which it has promised to implement in good faith.  UNSCR 1718, in effect since October 2006, bans the export of luxury goods to North Korea.  It has since been reinforced by UNSCR 1874:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il doled out foreign-made cars to senior intelligence officials to ensure their loyalty to his youngest son when he put the 26-year-old in charge of the country’s powerful spy agency, a report said Wednesday.

This report comes by way of the Donga Ilbo, quoting unnamed sources, so take it for what it’s worth.  The Donga hasn’t posted an English version of the story yet.

Five luxury cars, each worth some $80,000, were given as gifts to the officials, it said. The paper did not say which cars were given, but Kim has long been known to favor Mercedes and French wine as gifts to ensure his inner circle’s loyalty.  [AP, Jae Soon Chang]

So obviously, the world’s purest, most egalitarian socialist paradise has ended poverty, hunger, and mass starvation once and for all.  Just to add some perspective, about 30% of North Koreans live hand-to-mouth, our best estimate of its per capita income is just over $900 a year, and Kim Jong Il personally owns 200 S-Class Sedans.

Clearly, Kim Jong Il has money to burn these days.  Any guesses on where it could have come from, if not China?  China has also helped Kim Jong Il find ways to spend it, since rice and infant formula appear not to have occurred to the planners in Pyongyang:

Meanwhile, the U.N. resolution left the definition of luxury goods and the implementation of the embargo up to individual countries, enabling Russia to exclude watches under $2,000 and fur coats under $10,000. China–North Korea’s largest trade partner–declined to even publish a list of embargoed goods, and it appears that Chinese luxury exports to the North actually increased. Such goodies matter greatly to Kim, who uses handouts, ranging from Mercedes sedans to Hennessy cognac, to buy political loyalty.  [Marcus Noland, Newsweek]

Whatever pressure we’ve put on the Chinese not to undermine these sanctions, it obviously hasn’t been enough.  We’ll know that the Obama Administration is serious about this if we start to read more leaked reports about the disparity between what China says and what it does.

Related:  Senator Brownback calls for Treasury to target North Korea with money laundering sanctions, something that now seems like a real possibility.

Fists Still Firmly Clenched …

June 26, 2009 Propaganda 3 comments

Punching their fists into the air and shouting “Let’s crush them!” some 100,000 North Koreans packed Pyongyang’s main square Thursday for an anti-U.S. rally as the communist regime promised a “fire shower of nuclear retaliation” for any American-led attack.

Several demonstrators held up a placard depicting a pair of hands smashing a missile with “U.S.” written on it, according to footage taken by APTN in Pyongyang on the anniversary of the day North Korean troops charged southward, sparking the three-year Korean War in 1950.

North Korean troops will respond to any sanctions or U.S. provocations with “an annihilating blow,” one senior official vowed …. [AP]

You know, I thought the North Koreans would be a lot nicer by now, without George W. Bush around saying all those mean things about them.

Ling and Lee Families Hold Vigil in San Francisco

June 25, 2009 Kremlinology, Ling/Lee Incident No comments

The husband of an American journalist jailed in North Korea says his wife sounded scared during a recent phone call and described her confinement as “bearable.”

Iain Clayton, the husband of Laura Ling, said Wednesday his wife called him on Sunday night. He said although she tried to be strong on the phone, he could tell she was worried. [....]

Clayton also says Ling’s medical condition has deteriorated and Lee has developed a medical problem. Ling reportedly suffers from an ulcer.  [AP]

For the families, it’s important to keep the memories of Euna and Laura in the public eye and in the press, but I’m beginning to wonder what their focus is, beyond just calling for us to talk to the North Koreans.  After all, we talked to them plenty about their nukes and missiles, and just look where that got us.  Assuming the North Koreans are even willing to talk to us, how would we manage not to be forced into some concession (read: ransom) that would create an incentive to grab more hostages or harm our broader national security interests?  Those issues should be kept separate, but how exactly are we supposed to do that if the North Koreans insist on linking them?

Related:  This report, via the Donga Ilbo, has it that Kim Jong Un is personally overseeing the captivity and treatment of Laura Ling and Euna Lee.  Hey, if Kim Il Sung delegated the business of blowing up airliners and their passengers to his son, there’s no reason why this can’t be true, although many of the recent reports about Kim Jong Un have the ring of disinformation to them.

North Korea Threatens to Wipe U.S.A. Off the Map, Etcetera, Etcetera

June 25, 2009 Terrorism (NK) 4 comments

The harder KCNA’s writers work on their invective, the more this blog just writes itself:

“If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will … wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.  [Fox News]

And of the so-called U.S. nuclear umbrella over South Korea, KCNA offers this new variation on “sea of fire:”

North Korea condemned a recent U.S. pledge to provide nuclear defense of South Korea, saying Thursday that the move boosts its justification to hold onto atomic bombs and invites a potential “fire shower of nuclear retaliation.”  [AP]

Under the present serious situation where arms race is escalated and peace is seriously disturbed, the DPRK is left with no option but to further bolster up its war deterrent under the banner of Songun in order to protect the right of the country and the nation to exist and its sovereignty and security.  [KCNA]

Because as everyone knows, Barack Obama is a closet neocon who entered the presidency wanting nothing more than to provoke North Korea and escalate the arms race.  (Hey, there are some people who really believe this.)  The Pentagon’s reaction to this was a big “WTF?”

“I don’t even know how to respond to that. It’s silliness,” said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.”  For what and with what?” [Fox News]

President Bush removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008 to reward its regime for promising to give up its nuclear weapons. Under 18 U.S.C. sec. 2331, “international terrorism” includes acts that “appear to be intended” to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population” or “to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.Â  Discuss.

Related:  Obama extends sanctions on North Korean property.

In the Absence of Facts, Rumor Overtakes the Injustice of Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s Captivity

June 24, 2009 Ling/Lee Incident 29 comments

I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought of Laura Ling and Euna Lee when I heard about the escape of David Rhode from the Taliban.  An unpleasant quirk of human nature occurred to me:  by virtue of his escape, Rohde had instantly transformed himself from “stupid” to intrepid.  I’m glad Rohde lived to bring the story home.  Oddly enough, the minute I heard the report on the radio, I remembered Rohde’s name, because being captured isn’t a new experience for him.  Long ago, I was as interested in events in Bosnia as I am in North Korea today.  Rohde, then reporting for the Christian Science Monitor, infiltrated through Serbian lines alone to verify reports of a massacre at Srebrenica.  He found it.  He also found the Serbs, who took him prisoner.  But Rohde also provided some of the first and best confirmation that something truly horrible had taken place at Srebrenica, leading to a forceful NATO intervention that supplanted a feckless U.N. and ended the slaughter.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, by virtue of their very captivity, are also bringing much needed attention to a great and underreported humanitarian crisis.  Ironically, no report they could have provided would likely have brought the North Korean regime such infamy.  Yet  more reports seem to suggest that they intentionally took a big risk in the course of their reporting, perhaps to bring attention to their fledgling organization. Here is the latest of those:

It took just under three months, but we finally have the first reliable confirmation that Laura Ling, Euna Lee, Mitchell Koss and guide Kim Seong-chol did indeed cross into North Korean territory on that fateful March morning. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-Venice) during a June 12th phone conversation that the U.S. government has established that the quartet did step across the border, although it is unclear ““ after being chased and captured by North Korean border guards ““ whether those border guards entered Chinese territory to effect the capture of the two journalists. The entire episode occurred within “a few dozen meters” of the North Korea ““ China border.  [Liberate Laura Blog]

Read more

Issue of U.S. Troop Withdrawal from ROK Resurfaces in Opinion Piece

June 24, 2009 ROK Military, U.S. Military 4 comments

Interesting.

I remember hearing many people (American and South Korean alike) call for the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from the ROK during the Roh Moo-hyun years. Some of the calls coming from South Korea in particular were clearly based off anti-American sentiments while other people simply felt the absence of the U.S. military in Korea (or at least a reduced presence) would help the ROK become more self-sufficient militarily. At the time, I remember having conversations with people who had very convincing arguments, claiming that even though ROK troops were capable of defending the nation, the U.S. would be willing and able to assist South Korea in a military situation without having troops stationed in the country. (Incidentally, U.S. troop sizes were cut in the ROK to assist with deployment demands in Iraq between 2004-06.)

But in light of recent developments involving North Korea, I find it interesting to once again, hear calls for a full U.S. withdrawal from the peninsula. In an opinion piece penned by a (former?) military service person, a man calls on President Obama to pull U.S. troops out of Korea in a sign to Kim Jong Il that the U.S. is serious about North Korea’s latest actions. The writer suggests we withdraw our troops from the peninsula and let the other five nations in the region deal with the problem on their own, without U.S. involvement. (I wonder what South Korea and Japan would think of that.) Read more

Someone Will Face a Firing Squad for This

June 23, 2009 Defectors 4 comments

Some of Hwang Jang Yop‘s family members have escaped from North Korea:

Three relatives of Hwang Jang-yop, a former North Korean Workers’ Party secretary who defected to South Korea over a decade ago, fled the North last month and are now in a third country en route to the South, sources said Tuesday.

The defectors are members of Hwang’s extended family, one of the sources who is also a North Korean defector and frequently communicates with defectors abroad, said on condition of anonymity.  [Yonhap]

I wonder if they were in one of the camps, and what they could tell us about it.

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