Sanctions – Page 21

February 13, 2010

Axis of Evil Watch

South Korea has told the Security Council that it seized garments “deemed to have military uses for chemical protection,”Â according to a report from Turkish Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, chairman of a committee that monitors implementation of UN sanctions against North Korea. The incident was one of four brought to the attention of the Security Council because of possible violations of sanctions intended to halt North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs. Apakan also reported on Italy’s seizure of two luxury yachts...

Axis of Evil/Missiles/Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD

February 13, 2010

Thailand Deports Crew of Axis of Evil Express

Brokedown Palace is about to lose a few tenants. Thailand has decided to deport the Boratistani crew of the Il-76 caught carrying weapons from North Korea to Iran instead of prosecuting them. The crew may face prosecution in their home countries instead. The plane and the cargo will stay in Thailand for the time being: “We are waiting for the United Nations to recommend what to do with the weapons,” Mr. Panitan said in a telephone interview. “The plane is...

Axis of Evil/Missiles/Proliferation/Sanctions/Terrorism (NK)

January 28, 2010

On North Korea, Obama Touts Sanctions, Not Talks

Change! Now, these diplomatic efforts have also strengthened our hand in dealing with those nations that insist on violating international agreements in pursuit of nuclear weapons. That’s why North Korea now faces increased isolation, and stronger sanctions ““- sanctions that are being vigorously enforced. That’s why the international community is more united, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated. And as Iran’s leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: They, too, will face growing...

Sanctions/U.S. Politics/Washington Views

January 27, 2010

North Korean Defects from Embassy in Ethiopia

Yonhap and AFP are both reporting that a 40 year-old North Korean “medic” at the embassy in Addis Ababa defected to South Korea last October. The man is now safely in Seoul. Yonhap said the communist state’s embassy protested strongly, making a threatening call to the South Korean mission. President Bush removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008. Discuss among yourselves. North Korean officials used cars to stage protests outside the building...

Africa/Defectors/Sanctions

January 21, 2010

Why, You Ask, Does North Korea Need Another Bank?

It probably doesn’t have anything to do the reason cited in news reports about a “thaw” (as if) in relations with the South or the United States. A body known as the Korea Taepung International Investment Group held its first board meeting to launch a state development bank, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency reported late Wednesday The bank will finance state projects “after being equipped with advanced banking rules and system needed for transactions with international monetary organisations and...

Money Laundering/Sanctions

January 12, 2010

Peace Through War, as Explained by Christine Ahn

I see Kim Jong Il is broke again: Fifty-seven years after the end of the bloody Korean conflict, always unpredictable North Korea on Monday proposed a peace treaty to formally end the hostilities. The communist state suggested that once a treaty was underway, it would return to the stalled six-party talks to end the regime’s nuclear ambitions. But first, North Korean officials say, they want international sanctions imposed last year to be lifted immediately. The proposal was met with skepticism...

North-South/Sanctions/Useful Idiocy

January 8, 2010

The Indictments Are Coming! The Indictments Are Coming!

Why do I blog? Because of stories like this: U.S. authorities plan to indict a New Zealand company allegedly involved in selling North Korean arms to Iran, sources linked to the investigation say. They are trying to track down shadowy figures using a labyrinth of thousands of Auckland companies registered to an office on Queen Street, Auckland’s main street. [Sydney Morning Herald] The significance of indicting the company is that the feds will probably tack on some criminal forfeiture counts,...

Axis of Evil/Iran/Missiles/Money Laundering/Proliferation/Sanctions/U.S. Law

January 3, 2010

China Pursues Dual Strategy on Sanctions Compliance

For what little it’s worth, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice says that because of UNSCR 1874 sanctions, “North Korea is feeling far greater pressure to halt its nuclear weapons program than it has in the past.” Well, maybe. I think the sanctions are still insufficient to disarm North Korea, because Kim Jong Il still thinks he can either ride them out, or bait-and-switch our diplomats, just like he did to Madeleine Albright and Chris Hill before. And as I never tire...

China & Korea/Sanctions

December 31, 2009

Man-Portable Surface-to-Air Missiles Found in Seized Bangkok Shipment

Brian McCartan, a freelance journalist based in Bangkok, has written an exceptionally detailed account of what is know and not known about the North Korean weapons seized in Bangkok. All of the many details McCartan relates are consistent with the better reporting I’ve read in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere, but there is one thing in this article that I hadn’t read anywhere else: A search of the plane’s cargo after a tip-off from US intelligence sources found 35...

Sanctions/Terrorism (NK)

December 23, 2009

Treasury Issues Alert on Another North Korean Bank

Just days after Stephen Bosworth’s mostly unproductive visit to Pyongyang (it was, despite much spin to the contrary) the Treasury Department has issued a financial advisory against one of North Korea’s largest banks, Kumgang Bank, for “[i]nvolvement in [i]llicit [f]inancial [a]ctivities,” based on “publicly available information.” You can read Treasury’s advisory in full here, but you’ll find it terse and otherwise lacking in detail about Kumgang’s transgressions. The advisory updates this broader advisory against North Korean financial institutions, issued following...

Money Laundering/NK Economics/Sanctions

December 17, 2009

North Korean Arms Shipment Linked to Iran and China

Did I call it or what? Weapons seized in Thailand from an impounded plane traveling from North Korea were likely destined for Iran, a high-ranking Thai government security official was quoted by Reuters as saying regarding the findings of a team investigating the arms. “Some experts believe the weapons may be going to Iran, which has bought arms from North Korea in the past,” said the official. The official was quoted as saying the Thai investigating team considered Iran the...

"United" Nations/Axis of Evil/China & Korea/Iran/Missiles/Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD

December 10, 2009

More on Australia’s Denial of Visas to N. Korean Propaganda Artists

In Australia, five artists from the Mansudae Art Studio were invited to the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Queensland state to talk about 15 pieces the organizers commissioned for the exhibition, which includes work from more than 100 artists from 25 countries. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith rejected the artists’ applications for an exception to a visa ban on North Korea, part of targeted sanctions imposed in 2006 in response to the country’s steps to develop atomic weapons. Organizers...

"United" Nations/Censorship/Propaganda/Sanctions

November 16, 2009

Phillip Goldberg Quits as N. Korea Sanctions Coordinator

Goldberg had been highly effective in his post, and his departure is a very, very worrying sign about the direction of the administration’s policy: A diplomatic source in Washington said Sunday Goldberg has been appointed as assistant secretary of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department. Voice of America reported that the White House informed the Senate of Goldberg’s new post last month, and a confirmation hearing will take place Thursday. South Korean and U.S. government officials...

Money Laundering/Proliferation/Sanctions

November 15, 2009

Move Along, Nothing to See Here

An unidentified North Korean consul who disappeared in Shenyang last month while on his way to the bank has been found dead: Chinese authorities are investigating the death of a North Korean diplomat whose body was discovered in late October after he went missing for nearly a month, sources here said Friday. The diplomat, identified only by his surname of Kim, was a consul at the North Korean consulate-general in this eastern city of China, according to the sources. Kim,...

Money Laundering

November 12, 2009

Sanctions Update

The Chosun Ilbo reports that Ambassador Phillip Goldberg has kept himself busy crossing the globe, meeting with government officials and bankers in Russia and China, and shutting down North Korean accounts, even as Stephen Bosworth and others met with the North Koreans to talk nuclear diplomacy. North Korea invited U.S. North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth on Aug. 4, when former U.S. president Bill Clinton was in Pyongyang to win the release of two American journalists. The same day, Goldberg was...

Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/NK Economics/Sanctions

November 6, 2009

Michael Green on Bilateral Talks and Sanctions

Beyond Christine Ahn’s alternative universe, the insiders are unanimous for now, whether on or off the record: for the foreseeable future, the Obama Administration intends to sustain — if not intensify — sanctions until North Korea disarms. Like most of you, I suspect that eventually, we’ll lift them for another promise to disarm, but for now, the unanimous message I’m hearing is to the contrary: A major factor in Washington’s reluctance to rush into talks, Green says, is that “the...

Diplomacy/Sanctions/Washington Views

October 28, 2009

Treasury Knocks Over Yet Another North Korean Bank

Phillip Goldberg and Stuart Levey have done more to advance U.S. interests in five months than the entire East Asia Bureau of our State Department has done in two decades: Treasury said in a statement that Amroggang Development Bank was being added to a list of proliferators of mass destruction because it was owned or controlled by North Korea’s Tanchon Commercial Bank. Tanchon was previously hit with sanctions by both the United States and the United Nations Security Council for...

Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD

October 16, 2009

China: The John Edwards of Diplomacy

[Update: According to this story, Wen put off signing an economic development deal with Pyongyang worth “several billion dollars” dollars after Kim Jong Il failed to provide a “clear” statement about returning to six-party talks. I can’t say whether China’s offer came with the Obama Administration’s tacit approval or provoked quiet disapproval, but if we’re back in the business of paying North Korea to come back to talks to stall and lie, we’re right back at square one. The only...

"United" Nations/China & Korea/Sanctions

Category: Sanctions