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Category: Sanctions

October 14, 2009

Sanctions Update

Either Hillary Clinton reads The New Ledger or I’m not the only one who is worried that the Obama Administration will relax sanctions too early because of vaporous North Korean promises that it will return to talks. Either way, she seems to have wanted to put such fears to rest: “We have absolutely no intention of relaxing or offering to relax North Korean sanctions at this point whatsoever,” Clinton said. [AFP] Meanwhile, Chris Hill’s replacement as Assistant Secretary for East...

Categories Sanctions
October 6, 2009

More North Korean Cargo Searched

South Korean authorities seized in September four cargo containers belonging to North Korea under U.N. sanctions imposed on the communist state for its defiant missile and nuclear tests, a newspaper reported on Monday. The reported seizure at the South’s port of Busan comes at a sensitive point as Seoul and the international community attempt finely choreographed diplomacy to bring Pyongyang back to stalled nuclear disarmament talks.  [Reuters, Jack Kim] According to the Joongang Ilbo, South Korean authorities are confirming the...

Categories Sanctions
October 3, 2009

We Are All Neocons

Don Kirk, writing in the Asia Times, concludes that however North Korea behaves toward its neighbors at any given moment, it is determined to get our money and keep its nukes. That’s not an astonishing conclusion for any intelligent analyst of North Korean behavior, but Don’s writing is always worth a read. I try to refrain from predicting whether North Korea’s next move will be provocation or the North Korean equivalent of a “charm offensive,” since the options aren’t mutually...

Categories Diplomacy/Sanctions
September 23, 2009

China Stabs Obama (and America) in the Back on North Korea

I’ve been skeptical of reports, most of them directly from the ChiCom propaganda mill, that China was cooperating with U.N. sanctions against North Korea. So after a brief flurry of displays of cooperation, here is what the statistical record tells us: North Korea’s trade with China declined slightly during the first half of this year, likely due to falling prices of crude oil, a South Korean agency and officials said Wednesday. Trade volume during the January-June period totaled US$1.1 billion,...

Categories China & Korea/Sanctions
September 19, 2009

Sanctions Are Good for Diplomacy, But Diplomacy Won’t Disarm North Korea

Despite warnings from the foreign policy establishment (most notably, Selig Harrison and Ralph Cossa, among many others) that sanctioning North Korea would drive North Korea away from disarmament talks, the opposite seems to be happening — the election of a seemingly liberal administration brought only provocations from North Korea, while tough sanctions are forcing them to feign interest in disarming: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told a visiting Chinese envoy he will work to end his country’s nuclear arms programme...

Categories Diplomacy/Sanctions
September 15, 2009

And Yet, Christine Ahn Wants You to Know that Sanctions Kill North Korean Babies

Italian customs recently confiscated 420 bottles of expensive liquor on their way to North Korea. Italian newspaper Vivere Ancona said customs in the eastern port city seized 150 bottles of brandy and 270 bottles of whisky in containers destined for North Korea at the end of last month. The confiscation follows a UN Security Council ban on the export of arms, high technology and luxury goods to North Korea after the communist country’s nuclear test in May. The liquor is...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Kim Jong Il/Sanctions/Useful Idiocy
September 9, 2009

U.S. Sanctions More N. Korean Entities

The U.S. Department of State today designated under Executive Order 13382 the General Bureau of Atomic Energy (GBAE) and Korea Tangun Trading Corporation. Both entities were designated by the United Nations on July 16, 2009, for their involvement in North Korea’s WMD and missile programs. GBAE oversees the DPRK nuclear program and manages operations at the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center. Korea Tangun Trading Corporation is subordinate to North Korea’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences and is primarily responsible for the...

Categories Proliferation/Sanctions
August 28, 2009

UAE Intercepts N. Korean Arms Ship

[The ANL Australia, photo from here] The ship was on its way to Iran, carrying weapons whose trade is embargoed by UNSCR 1874: Diplomats at the UN identified the vessel as the Bahamian-flagged ANL-Australia. The vessel was seized some weeks ago. The UN sanctions committee has written to the Iranian and North Korean governments pointing out that the shipment puts them in violation of UN resolution 1974. [Financial Times, Simeon Kerr and Harvey Morris] Because they probably had no idea....

Categories "United" Nations/Axis of Evil/Iran/Proliferation/Sanctions
August 28, 2009

Attorney General Kills Indictment of Bill Richardson

A Justice Department investigation into “Kim Jong Bill” Richardson for a pay to play scandal has reportedly been “killed in Washington,” which I infer to mean killed by Eric Holder. The decision comes shortly after Richardson’s former Secretary of State was indicted for her efforts “cover up a vast money laundering and embezzlement scheme.” I haven’t seen the prosecutors’ case against Richardson, of course. How low must your moral stature must be if you ever find yourself arranging the chair...

Categories Appeasement/Sanctions
August 26, 2009

Must Read: On N. Korean Counterfeiting

We’ve seen much first-rate reporting on North Korea’s “supernote’ counterfeiting recently, and here’s one via The Independent that frankly outdoes all of them in its scope and detail, and fills in many missing details. I’m not going to even try to quote just one part of this. Just go and read. The comments are edifying in their own way. The British left is fond of saying that it isn’t really anti-American, just anti-Bush. And yet nothing seems to have changed...

Categories Counterfeiting
August 24, 2009

N Korea Charm Offensive Not Working

One for the archives: By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) – North Korea is waxing conciliatory after months of military provocations — but experts say now is no time for the United States to relent on sanctions aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear programs. North Korea has lowered tensions with several gestures from releasing two jailed U.S. journalists and freeing a detained South Korean businessman to offering to reopen frozen North-South business and tourism ventures. A high ranking...

Categories Sanctions
August 23, 2009

Easing of Tensions Amid Intensifying Sanctions Confounds Diplomats, “Peace Studies” Majors

Funny thing is, it was just yesterday that Selig Harrison was telling us that sanctions would make the North Koreans so mad they’d stomp away and not talk to us. And then I read this: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has sent word that he wants to hold a summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in the latest sign of easing tensions between the divided nations, news reports said Monday. Kim’s envoy proposed the summit during a rare...

Categories Diplomacy/North-South/Sanctions
August 20, 2009

Goldberg in Singapore, Thailand

Singapore – The US coordinator for North Korea sanctions on Thursday praised an unprecedented agreement and intensity in the international community to enforce the UN measures against the Stalinist regime in Pyongyang after its nuclear tests in May. ‘That’s something new about this, that there is an intensity and agreement internationally, regionally, … that this is an essential part of our overall effort,’ Ambassador Philip Goldberg said in Singapore, his first stop on a tour through Asia. [….] ‘But it’s...

Categories Money Laundering/Sanctions/Uncategorized
August 14, 2009

How Kim Jong Il Got Away With Counterfeiting Our Money

Having finally found time to read all of David Rose’s excellent Vanity Fair piece on North Korea’s supernote counterfeiting operation, I agree absolutely with Richardson and Curtis; it’s an excellent piece of journalism. For a fuller understanding, it should be read in the context of two others. Stephen Mihm’s New York Times report explained how North Korea assembled Intaglio printing presses and optically variable ink from the same Swiss manufacturer that supplies them to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and...

Categories Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/Sanctions
August 13, 2009

China Finally Enforcing N. Korea Sanctions, Kinda?

To say the very least, I remain deeply skeptical that China’s effort will be sustained, complete, or in good faith, but here are two stories that suggest to some degree, China is restricting trade with North Korea.  The first (as the reader who sent the link notes) comes directly from the ChiCom state media, so take it with a tablespoon of salt. Shan, who has run the corporation for 16 years, said he has forged close relations with officials in...

Categories "United" Nations/China & Korea/Kremlinology/Sanctions
August 11, 2009

Treasury Knocks Over Another North Korean Bank

The Korea Kwangson Banking Corporation (KKBC) was been sanctioned under Executive 13382 today, for facilitating WMD proliferation: “North Korea’s use of a little-known bank, KKBC, to mask the international financial business of sanctioned proliferators demonstrates the lengths to which the regime will go to continue its proliferation activities and the high risk that any business with North Korea may well be illicit,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey. Since 2008, Tanchon has been utilizing KKBC to...

Categories Money Laundering/Sanctions
August 11, 2009

North Korean Ship Boarded in Indian Waters Not Carrying Banned Cargo

That North Korean ship that was boarded, searched, and investigated after being caught lurking suspiciously in Indian waters turns out to have been carrying “genuine” cargo after all.  As we all eagerly anticipate John Feffer and Christine Ahn’s outcry that the ship’s captain was unfairly profiled for “boating while North Korean,” the rest of us can only shake our heads and wonder why the ship was behaving so suspiciously: A day after a North Korean ship was detained at Port...

Categories Proliferation/Sanctions
August 9, 2009

Hey, Over There! Isn’t that a North Korean WMD Smugging Ship?

Some ferry passengers off the Andaman Islands probably never figured they’d be signing up to join the Proliferation Security Initiative when they bought their passage: The sources said the observant passengers were on their way from Port Blair to Hut Bay on a ferry called “˜”˜M V Hut Bay”. They first noticed the ship about 7 km from Hut Bay, the entry point for the Little Andaman islands, in a highly isolated stretch of the sea. One of the passengers...

Categories Proliferation/Sanctions