Money Laundering

December 30, 2007

Ralph Cossa is wrong; Pressure on North Korea worked, when applied

Generally, I agree with Robert Koehler that Lee Myung Bak’s landslide victory was anything but a mandate for a better, more moral North Korea policy. It will put less irrational people in charge, but the policy will not be the improvement that Nicholas Eberstadt hopes for unless Kim Jong Il gets seriously on the wrong side of Lee Myung-Bak’s temper. Why? First, the election was all about money. Second, Lee Myung Bak is all about money. Third, South Korean voters …...

Appeasement/Korean Politics/Money Laundering

September 11, 2007

Noland and Haggard: Kim Jong Il’s Palace Economy Is Broken

North Korea is a land made in the vision of John Edwards: to a greater extent than almost anywhere, there are two North Koreas. That division is even preserved by a semi-official, hereditary caste system. That’s why it wouldn’t be completely accurate to say that North Korea’s economy is near collapse; one of the North Korean economies — the peoples’ economy — collapsed a dozen years ago. What was left of it was severely disrupted by the Great Famine, when...

Money Laundering/NK Economics

July 13, 2007

Law Enforcement Will Be Compromised, Part 2

Law enforcement will not be compromised. ““ Chris Hill, Feb. 27, 2007 [Update: Welcome Wall Street Journal readers.] The latest refutation of this whopper of diplomatic mendacity is an extensive new investigative report on North Korea’s criminal enterprises from Time (thanks to a reader for forwarding). The report suggests that our State Department’s incomprehensible decision to return $25 million of Kim Jong Il’s criminally derived funds, now under GAO investigation as a possible violation of our own money laundering laws,...

Appeasement/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks

June 20, 2007

North Korean Money and the Fed

Kevin Hassett, Director of Economic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, asks, “Why did the Fed help North Korea launder money?” I’m no economist, so I’m interested in how the transaction could affect the Federal Reserve system. Hassett thinks this transaction simultaneously inseminated the Fed with dirty money and politics, and he doesn’t think we’re going to like what we see at the end of the gestation. You ought to read the whole piece, but here’s a graf: It...

Money Laundering/NK Economics/U.S. Politics

June 12, 2007

Republicans Rebel on N. Korea Policy, Demand GAO Money Laundering Inquiry

You may recall that in this post and in this piece for Front Page Magazine, I suggested that our own State Deparment’s attempts to return $25 million to the North Korean regime — much or most of it proceeds of crime — could violate U.S. money laundering laws, as well as two U.N. resolutions the United States successfully lobbied for less than a year ago. As it turns out, great minds think alike. Now, with Russia about to step up...

Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/U.S. Politics

May 29, 2007

Wachovia Backs Off of North Korea Funds Transfer

State must really regret having let the Banco Delta issue enter the mainstream of our nuclear diplomacy with the North Koreans. What a terrifically mangled excuse it has become for North Korea’s nonperformance. The United States believes a banking dispute blocking a nuclear disarmament accord will drag on and has pressed North Korea to start shutting its reactor in return for a firm US promise of a solution, a report said Monday. [AFP] This is just odd. You’d think that...

Appeasement/Diplomacy/Money Laundering

May 14, 2007

One Man’s Diplomacy Is Another Man’s Conspiracy (or Chris Hill, Call Your Lawyer)

Whoever [in the United States or in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States] knowingly engages or attempts to engage in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property of a value greater than $10,000 and is derived from specified unlawful activity, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b). — So here’s something I though I’d never see: U.S. government officials more-or-less openly engaging in a conspiracy that would land anyone else in a federal prison for...

Appeasement/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks

April 23, 2007

Anju Links for 23 April 2007

* The Ides of April. I’ve previously blogged about the replacement of Premier Pak Pong Ju with Kim Yong Il. Now, we learn that Kim Kyok-Sik is taking over as the new “military first,” to borrow a tired expression, which technically makes him second only to Korigula himself (ht: Richardson). Two other old party hacks have gone off to that Eternal Party Congress chaired by Mephistopheles himself, or soon will: Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun and Marshall Cho Myong-Rok. All...

"United" Nations/Appeasement/Diplomacy/Drugs & N Korea/Korean Society/Kremlinology/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks/Southeast Asia/Uncategorized/WMD

April 12, 2007

Law Enforcement Will Be Compromised

Correction: I subsequently found the transcript for the February 27, 2007 hearing, and Chris Hill did not say, quote, “Law enforcement will not be compromised.” On reading the full quote, you’ll probably agree that Hill found another way of saying the same thing; however, I regret the error, which was no doubt due to me scribbling notes of the hearing by hand, and transposing Rep. Royce’s question with Hill’s answer. Here’s the correct quote from Hill: Ambassador HILL. Mr. Congressman,...

Appeasement/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Money Laundering

March 28, 2007

A novel definition for ‘denuclearization;’ and where to keep a horse (from being eaten) in N. Korea

According to this Chosun Ilbo report, North Korea recently floated a novel interpretation of “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” under which it could, you know, keep its nuclear weapons. I wonder what they expected: The assistant secretary of state made it clear that Washington’s goal is complete denuclearization saying, “The U.S. will not form any kind of ties with a nuclear-armed North Korea. He stipulated that “the case of India (which signed a nuclear pact despite possessing nuclear programs) will...

Human Rights/Kim Jong Il/Money Laundering/Proliferation/Six-Party Talks/WMD

March 27, 2007

Colin McAskill Threatens to Sue Over Release of Funds to DPRK Gov’t

McAskill, the man who sells Kim Jong Il’s gold and who recently bought the bank through which most of North Korea’s European investment is channeled, has heretofore been a strident and articulate advocate of releasing the $25 million frozen in BDA. Overnight, he has become the main obstacle: In two letters sent to the Monetary Authority of Macao, [Daedong Credit Bank] has said that it will take legal action if any of its frozen funds are moved in accordance with...

Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Money Laundering/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks/WTF?

March 27, 2007

As N. Korea Reverts to Form, Hill Warns Kim Jong Il

Via Richardson: The U.S. envoy to the North Korea nuclear talks said Monday that Pyongyang needs to meet international standards, especially in human rights, in order to have relations with Washington. “It’s a price of admission to the international community,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said. [Yonhap] Does this encourage me? I’m not sure. It’s not a bad thing that Chris Hill is tipping his hat comb-over in this direction, although “international standards, especially in human rights” are a...

Diplomacy/Money Laundering/WMD

March 24, 2007

Anju Links for 3/24: Another Stolen Life, More Measles in N. Korea, Cowardly Capital, and the Diplomacy of Blame

* Doina Bumbea, artist, 1950-1997. From this photo, it’s almost as if she could foresee the tragedy of her own life. The circumstantial proof seems strong, though not conclusive, that the North Koreans lured Doina from Bucharest to Japan and kidnapped her for the use of U.S. Army deserter James Dresnok, who by all accounts is an utterly comtemptible person. But Doina’s family, which didn’t know what happened to her for all these years, seems convinced. And there’s...

Abductions/Diplomacy/Famine & Food Aid/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks/WMD

March 22, 2007

So Much for ‘Peace in Our Time’

[Sorry for the earlier comments glitch; please e-mail me if you have problems.] OK, now the diplos have flown home. Talks on halting North Korea’s nuclear program broke down abruptly on Thursday with the country’s chief nuclear envoy flying home after a dispute over money frozen in a Macau bank could not be resolved. Kim Kye Gwan flew out of Beijing after refusing to take part in six-party talks to push forward a February agreement calling for North Korea...

"United" Nations/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Money Laundering/Russia & Korea/Six-Party Talks/WMD

March 20, 2007

N. Korea Boycotts Talks Over Funny Money Proceeds

[Talks stall; See updates below] BEIJING – International talks on North Korea’s nuclear program stalled again Tuesday, with Pyongyang refusing to take part until it receives $25 million from a bank blacklisted by the United States, Japan’s chief envoy said. Kenichiro Sasae said a meeting scheduled for Tuesday afternoon between the chief delegates of the six nations involved in the disarmament talks was canceled because Pyongyang refused to attend. “There was no progress at all today,” Sasae said. “China as...

Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Money Laundering/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks/WMD

March 18, 2007

Ill-Gotten Gains: Who Still Remembers Resolution 1718?

[Scroll down for updates.] (d) all Member States shall, in accordance with their respective legal processes, freeze immediately the funds, other financial assets and economic resources which are on their territories at the date of the adoption of this resolution or at any time thereafter, that are owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the persons or entities designated by the Committee or by the Security Council as being engaged in or providing support for, including through other illicit means,...

"United" Nations/An Alliance?/Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks/WMD

March 16, 2007

N. Koreans May Have Given U.N. Counterfeit $100 Bills

[A] new twist now emerging in the Cash-for-Kim scandal is that while the UNDP has been giving Kim real money, Kim’s regime may have been handing over counterfeit banknotes to the UNDP–which apparently had a stack of counterfeit $100 bills sitting in its office-safe in Pyongyang. [National Review] We owe this revelation to — who else? — Claudia Rosett.

"United" Nations/Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/NK Economics/WTF?

March 13, 2007

Breaking the Bank in Macau

[Updates: You can read Treasury’s final rule here. Start on page 14 to read just what Banco Delta failed to do to Treasury’s satisfaction. The message for North Korea’s other bankers out there is clear: ask obvious questions. Among BDA’s practices, according to the rule, was to provide a discount for a “high-risk North Korean-related bulk currency depositor” they either knew, or should have known, was laundering money. BDA obfuscated about reforms, failed to change its corrupt management, and didn’t...

China/Counterfeiting/Democracy/Money Laundering

Category: Money Laundering