How Many Divisions Does Ban Ki Moon Have?

Since October 2006, U.N. Security Council resolution 1718 has prohibited North Korea from trafficking in  major weapons systems or WMD techonology.  So sit down for this one:

“The Middle East remans on the receiving end of the DPRK’s reckless activities,” Israeli delegate David Danieli told the meeting, referring to North Korea by its acronym.

“At least half a dozen countries in the region … have become eager recipients” of the North’s black market supplies of conventional arms or nuclear technology, he said _ mostly “through black market and covert network channels.”

While he did not name any of the suspected countries, he appeared to be referring in part to Iran and Syria, which are both under IAEA investigation, and Libya, which scrapped its rudimentary weapons program after revealing it in 2003.

U.S. officials have said that North Korea’s customer list for missiles or related components going back to the mid-1980s also include Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.  [CBS News]

The Israeli delegate didn’t specify the types of weapons systems the North Koreans have been peddling, but one hint is that this came up at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On a related note, South Korean lawmaker  Kwong Young-Se  of the GNP says North Korea has spent $65 million to import weapons systems since 2003, which convinces me of little except the shortcomings in South Korean intelligence about the North.  Spread out over a period of five years, this would be a far smaller amount than one would expect, given that a single Su-25 attack plane probably costs at least $10 or $15 million. 

By comparison, the North had received  just under  $200 million in food aid from the World Food Program annually at the peak of WFP operations in 2005.   For more context, the USA Today link above estimates North Korea’s “national income,” which I suppose means something similar to GDP, at about $26 bilion; however, Nicholas Eberstadt would tell you that the actual figure would be about twice that if it included the North’s illicit income.  I have seen various experts estimate that North Korea spends about 30% of its budget on the military, although no one can claim to have an authoritative figure or source for it.  See also ROK Drop.

Funny, the General Assembly’s resolutions aren’t getting much respect in Pyongyang, either.  Still, Ban must feel the occasional need to  say things like this:

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has accused North Korea of failing to achieve ”tangible” progress in responding to a U.N. resolution last year calling for improvements in its human rights situation. 

”The secretary general is seriously concerned at the lack of tangible progress made by the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in other respects to safeguard fundamental rights and freedoms,” Ban said in a 17-page report to the General Assembly on North Korea’s human rights situation.  [Kyodo News]

Obligation discharged.   This probably constitutes Ban’s full and final response to the updated “Failure to Protect.”