Search Results for: phnom penh

July 1, 2016

Sanctions Diplomacy: Yesterday Uganda, today Namibia, tomorrow Cambodia

Earlier this week, when a senior Namibian official who had defended her government’s military cooperation with North Korea showed up in Pyongyang, I conceded that she could be there to terminate that cooperation, but didn’t assess that possibility as very likely. But yesterday, the Namibian government announced it was ending its joint projects with North Korea, including a North Korean-run arms factory, to comply with new U.N. sanctions: “The Government of the Republic of Namibia, in fulfilling her international obligations...

Categories Africa/Sanctions/Southeast Asia
November 19, 2014

Must see: An opinion about N. Korea sanctions from an actual sanctions expert (really!)

William Newcomb, formerly of the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.N. Panel of experts (UNPOE), was at The Korea Society last Friday to talk with Stephen Noerper about North Korea sanctions, what they are, and how to make them a useful policy tool again. Newcomb didn’t have time to explain all of the authorities and their provisions in detail, but he did make some important points. First, Newcomb blames “politics” for the fact that the UNPOE hasn’t designated a number...

Categories Sanctions
July 23, 2014

APG needs N. Korea like the Vienna Boys’ Choir needs Jerry Sandusky

The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering describes itself as “an autonomous and collaborative international organisation … consisting of 41 members and a number of international and regional observers [who] are committed to the effective implementation and enforcement of internationally accepted standards against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, in particular the Forty Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF).” APG has an Associate Membership in FATF, the world’s primary international organization dedicated to fighting money...

Categories Money Laundering
August 30, 2010

North Korea and South Africa: A Study in Hypocrisy

After less than three weeks, FIFA has closed its investigation into allegations that players and coaches of North Korea’s losing soccer team were subjected to criticism sessions when they returned home. But when you go to FIFA’s web site, it’s apparent that FIFA’s “investigation” consisted of opening and reading a letter from the North Koreans denying it. I have no inside knowledge of whether the allegations are true, but I know that FIFA has no more idea of the truth...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Racism/Sports
June 22, 2008

Obama Gets Another Unwanted Endorsement

[Update: Well, that didn’t take long. Welcome from Little Green Footballs, Michelle Maklin, the Jawa Report, the unlinkable Memeorandum, and my good friend at Gateway Pundit. Regulars here know that I’m completely disgusted with Bush’s own appeasement of Kim Jong Il, but while you’re here, don’t miss the story of Esther Kim, an Obama constituent whose husband was kidnapped and killed by the North Koreans. Obama inspired her Hope, then crushed it with Change.] The Chosun Sinbo, the mouthpiece of...

Categories Appeasement/U.S. Politics
November 13, 2007

Korean Election Update: Lessers Versus Evils

Just over a month before South Korean presidential election, Lee Hoi Chang has announced that he’s  running as an independent candidate.  I have now seen it all.   So can he win?  Hell if I know.  To an observer of long American political campaigns, it’s hard to see how anyone could  enter  a race so late and have a chance of winning it, but this most definitely is not American politics.  Korean politics is famously mercurial; it’s about as exact, empirical,...

Categories Korean Politics
August 22, 2007

“Famine in North Korea:” An Interactive Review (1 of 3)

The time stamp on this post may be the most telling part of it, for I first got my hands on Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard’s “Famine in North Korea:  Markets, Aid, and Reform” back in late March.  The intervening months have been very busy for me, and the book raised more points of discussion than I can cover here.  Noland and Haggard  are two of the finest, most respected scholars of all things North Korean and economic, and their...

Categories Books & Films/Famine & Food Aid
June 6, 2006

Derailed on the Underground Railroad

[Update 7 Jun 06: A hopeful sign? Personally, I think we need to keep the pressure on. My heartfelt thanks to those of you — and I’m hearing from a number of you — who have sent letters, and to the journalists I contacted who have shown great interest in the story. That especially goes for the Yonhap correspondent.] Via the Christian activist Tim Peters, one of the founders of North Korean refugees’ underground railroad, and reader/teacher/activist Brendan Brown, eight...

Categories Activism/Refugees/Southeast Asia
September 8, 2014

N. Koreans are bootlegging liquor in Muslim countries

Last week, NK News published a detailed report on a black market in alcohol run by North Korean diplomats in Pakistan. Almost simultaneously, The Daily NK also reported that two North Korean “chauffeurs,” dispatched by the regime to Qatar, and nominally working for private companies there, had been arrested for bootlegging. Two North Korean men are being detained in Qatar under suspicions of the distribution of illegal liquor; Voice of America [VOA] reported on September 4th, citing the Gulf Times, Qatar’s English language newspaper. The...

Categories Drugs & N Korea/Money Laundering
April 15, 2014

Inspector General finds flaws in WFP monitoring in N. Korea (and I find a bigger one)

A reader (thank you) directs my attention to this Fox News report covering a new report by the U.N. World Food Program’s Office of Inspector General, finding major loopholes in the WFP’s controls to prevent the North Korean government from stealing food aid and diverting it to regime loyalists and the military. The report is so cryptic that it’s almost unreadable, so I’ll summarize: – The WFP failed to meet its targets for monitoring visits to ensure that aid was...

Categories Famine & Food Aid