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Category: Sanctions

May 15, 2006

A Crime Syndicate With a Seat at the U.N.

Wasn’t it only yesterday when the Japanese caught a North freighter smuggling in amphetamines? Now look: During the last two years, Japanese maritime police officers have frequently caught foreign ships leaving North Korean ports trying to smuggle fake cigarettes, the Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun reported. Citing intelligence data from satellites, the newspaper said that the fake cigarettes were at times transferred onto other ships waiting in the South Korean port of Busan or near Taiwanese waters. The foreign ships were...

Categories Counterfeiting/Drugs & N Korea/NK Economics
May 15, 2006

Kofi Annan Calls on N. Korea to Account for Abductees

Well, it’s a start. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday said North Korea must be held to account for the suffering and rage of people it kidnapped and the anxiety of families who never discovered what happened to their loved ones. He called on the North to return every one of those it abducted in its bizarre campaign in the 1970s and 80s. He also called on human rights and counterfeiting to be dealt with separately from, and (impliedly) after...

Categories "United" Nations/Abductions/Counterfeiting/Human Rights/Six-Party Talks
April 16, 2006

Chris Hill on North Korea’s Creative Financing

“They might have thought they were a small country that could get away with it “¦ but when you get involved with nuclear weapons, you get looked at,” said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who was on his way home from an academic conference in Tokyo, where he briefly saw his North Korean counterpart. “They should not be surprised”¦. This is life in the fast lane.” Link here. While I don’t actually agree that Amb. Hill is the good...

Categories Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks
April 13, 2006

Links of Interest

* The United States wants South Korea to join it in imposing sanctions against North Korean shipping. South Korea will not agree, though the move would be almost exclusively symbolic. * LiNK will hold a fund-raising happy hour at the K Street Lounge, 1301 K St. NW, Washington, DC, on April 20th at 6 p.m. Join us as LiNK DC hosts the K Street Lounge Happy Hour! With free first drinks, we promise a great time networking with like professionals...

Categories Activism/An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Korean Law/Korean Society/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea/WTF?
April 6, 2006

Is Kim Jong Il Bankrupt?

There is more evidence to suggest that North Korea really is in dire financial straits after all. Some would not call this a novel conclusion to make about a country in which 2.5 million people have starved to death, but a careful reading of what NGO workers and refugees tell us of how the food was passed out suggests that the North Korean regime was not unduly upset about that, as long as its elite ate well and never lacked...

Categories China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/NK Economics/Uncategorized
April 5, 2006

Who Is Ma Young-Ae, and What Does She Know?

[Updated 6 Apr 06; scroll down] Via The Flying Yangban, it looks like the U.S. may be on the verge of accepting its first North Korean refugee. Like the Yangban, I’m happy about it. Unlike the Yangban, I don’t see this as necessarily precedent-setting for the broader issue of accepting refugees fleeing persecution in North Korea. Reason: this refugee is also fleeing persecution in South Korea. No, that wasn’t a typo: Ma came to South Korea in 2000. In April...

Categories Abductions/An Alliance?/Appeasement/Censorship/Counterfeiting/Defectors/Human Rights/Japan/Japan & Korea/Korean Law/North Korea/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized/Washington Views
April 5, 2006

The Other Nuclear Option

Much info on the economic front of late, including some initial, sketchy evidence to back U.S. claims that the sanctions are biting. The Chosun Ilbo continues to tremble over what the U.S. Treasury Department’s next move could be. Have a look at Section 311 (115 Stat. 298) of the USA PATRIOT Act, and if you can bear it, keep reading. It empowers Treasury to declare all of North Korea a jurisdiction of special money laundering concern — as we’ve apparently...

Categories China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Drugs & N Korea/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks/Uncategorized
April 4, 2006

Treasury Official: NK Sanctions Are Leaving a Mark

Last week, we heard that Kim Jong Il was trying to wait out President Bush. This week, a new report suggests that the converse may also be true: The U.S. Treasury Department says its ongoing financial sanctions against North Korea put “huge pressure” on the regime that could have a “snowballing … avalanche effect.” Under Secretary Stuart Levy was quoted in the latest edition of Newsweek, which analyzed the possible effect on the regime from Washington’s identification of the Banco...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/NK Economics/Six-Party Talks/Uncategorized/WMD
March 26, 2006

WANTED

Two U.S. senior congressional researchers say Washington could bring criminal charges against North Korean leader Kim Jong-il over his country’s alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars. The two authors of a Congressional Research Service report say the U.S.’s increasing keenness to back up its allegations with legal evidence is fueling speculation that it is considering going after Kim. Well, that would certainly mark a decisive policy shift — one that it would extraordinarily difficult for future presidents to reverse.  “Earthquake” might...

Categories Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/North Korea/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Law/Uncategorized
February 27, 2006

Supernotes Scandal to Hit Bank of China; NK Gov’t in Talks with U.S. on Counterfeiting

Via the Chosun Ilbo: The U.S. is preparing to seize more than US$2.67 million from three frozen bank accounts with Chiyu Banking, a subsidiary of Bank of China Hong Kong. The South China Morning Post reported the funds are believed to be the first known link between a Hong Kong bank and North Korea’s underground trade in “supernotes,” or high-quality fake US$100 bills. The accounts belong to an unemployed mainland Chinese woman named Kwok Hiu Ha. The Bank of China...

Categories China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Defectors/Diplomacy/NK Economics/Uncategorized
February 23, 2006

Caught in the Act!

I wonder what Roh Moo-Hyun will say this time. Rogue diplomats? North Korean diplomats were caught attempting to smuggle US$1 million and 200 million yen into Mongolia on Tuesday, the Mongolian press reported. Reports said the North Koreans told Mongolian authorities they were planning to put the money in a Mongolian bank account, according to Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun. The paper said that it was unclear whether the money was counterfeit or not, and what measures the Mongolian authorities will take....

Categories Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Japan/NK Economics/North Korea/Uncategorized
February 16, 2006

Banco Delta Sanctions ‘Severe Blow’ to NK Economy

The Chosun Ilbo, relaying an AWSJ story, reports that the Treasury Department’s action against the Macau-based bank “dealt a severe blow to the secretive country,” “dried up its financial system,” and “brought foreign trade virtually to an end.” In December, I noted reports that North Korean front companies and spies were fleeing Macau en masse. According to today’s story, Banco Delta has now announced that it’s ending its financial ties with North Korea in an effort to prevent a run...

Categories Appeasement/Asia/China/China & Korea/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/NK Economics/U.S. Law/Uncategorized
February 15, 2006

Vershbow: I’ll Believe It When I See the Plates

The U.S. Ambassador to Korea, Alexander Vershbow, is taking the fight back to “enemy” territory, as predicted.  In an interview with OhMyNews, Vershow responded to North Korean comments that some have interpreted as North Korean flexibility on counterfeiting.  Vershbow is obviously familiar with North Korea’s track record, because he wants more tangible proof that North Korea is capable of sincerity and good faith: The U.S. ambassador to Korea, Alexander Vershbow, said yesterday that Pyongyang must show some “convincing evidence” that...

Categories Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/Uncategorized
February 15, 2006

NK ‘Spokesman’: We Have ICBMs!

Today’s WTF headline is this piece of work by Kim Myong Chol, North Korea’s unofficial and unmedicated spokesman in Japan. The real torment of this piece is the difficulty of deciding which of the choicest cuts to serve you: Three factors make North Korea unique. The first is possession of a fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of unleashing retaliatory nuclear strikes on the US mainland. Second, the North Koreans still torment the Americans as a result of their...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Asia/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Humor/Satire/Japan & Korea/Six-Party Talks/WTF?
February 12, 2006

$140,000 in N. Korean ‘Supernotes’ Found in Namdaemun

So South Korea really isn’t sure North Korea is counterfeiting our currency? Have a look at this: The South Korean government concealed the fact that U.S. investigators told it US$140,000 in counterfeit dollars found in Seoul’s Namdaemun market last April was made in North Korea, it emerged Sunday. Police at the time arrested three people who tried to exchange 1,400 so-called supernotes at a local money changer. They allegedly bought the supernotes from a broker in Shenyang, China. How do...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Uncategorized