FINAL UN REPORT ON N. KOREA SANCTION VIOLATIONS

This is a very comprehensive report detailing everything from the north's nuclear and missile program to its illicit activities and how it gets around sanctions.

If I were planning a comprehensive global campaign against north Korea's global illicit activities network, this document would contribute to the targeting process (my apologies to the UN who would probably not be pleased to read that).

The entire report can be downloaded here:  http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/2014/147&referer=/english/&Lang=E

Summary 

 There have been no signs that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 

intends to respond to the Security Council’s calls to abandon its nuclear, ballistic 

missile and other weapons of mass destruction programmes. On the contrary, it is 

persisting with its arms trade and other prohibited activities in defiance of Security 

Council resolutions, while activities related to its nuclear and ballistic missile 

programmes continue. 

 At the present time, the Panel does not see new measures as necessary in order 

to further slow the prohibited programmes of the Democratic People’s Republic of 

Korea, to dissuade it from engaging in proliferation activities or to halt its trade in 

arms and related materiel. Rather, the Panel believes that Member States already 

have at their disposal adequate tools. 

 The example of Panama with the Chong Chon Gang shows that determined 

action can thwart prohibited activities on the basis of existing measures. 

Nonetheless, the Panel strongly believes that overall implementation of existing 

sanctions should be significantly improved. In the present and prior reports to the 

Security Council, the Panel has made recommendations to help address identified 

shortcomings. 

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea presents a stiff challenge to 

Member States. It is experienced in actions it takes to evade sanctions. From the 

incidents analysed in the period under review, the Panel has found that it makes 

increasing use of multiple and tiered circumvention techniques. Access to the Chong 

Chon Gang provided the Panel with an unrivalled insight into some of the ways used 

to circumvent sanctions. This incident is also a reminder to Member States that, 

besides trade in arms and related materiel, the Democratic People’s Republic of 

Korea is forbidden to provide services or assistance on the manufacture, maintenance 

or use of arms. 

 Other incidents show that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea remains 

dependent on foreign procurement for certain items, especially some that figure in 

nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. In particular, it lacks sufficient domestic 

precision machine tool manufacturing capability and it purchases off-the-shelf items 

for its ballistic missile-related programmes. The Panel also assesses that it will likely 

seek out foreign suppliers for components it will need to fabricate fuel rods for its 

reactors. 

 A study commissioned by the Panel provided valuable insights into its overseas 

commercial presence, part of which is utilized to find alternative and willing 

suppliers and acquire technology and products it needs for prohibited programmes. 

The study also shows that individuals and entities operating abroad, particularly 

those it identified as working in the shipping industry, could be viewed as belonging 

to interconnected networks, useful in the conduct of legitimate and illicit trade. 

I think David Asher is right.  Short of force coercive financial sanctions are the only hope of influencing the behavior of the Kim Family Regime (I still find it difficult to believe that anything will cause the regime to give up its nuclear program but I think we can influence its behavior but attacking its money flow).  The sanctions on Banco Delta Asia had a significant effect on Kim Jong-il and was one of the only international actions that achieved significant effects on regime decision making and of course when those sanctions were lifted the regime reverted to its old ways.

V/R

Dave

(Yonhap Interview) Financial sanctions key to denuking N. Korea: former U.S. official

2013/09/26 08:00

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/interview/2013/09/25/70/0800000000AEN20130925009000315F.html

SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- Countries involved in talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program should ramp up financial sanctions against the communist country in order to achieve their goal, a former Bush administration official said Thursday.

Multilateral efforts are underway to revive the six-party talks to disarm a nuclear-armed North Korea. The talks, involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan, have been stalled since late 2008 after six rounds of failed negotiations.

"The whole process (of the six-party disarmament forum) has value, but none of this is likely to succeed in getting North Korea to give up its nuclear program unless we are willing to threaten the regime of Korea North in a way that internally threatens it -- taking away their money and forcing them to fight among themselves," said David Asher, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on the sidelines of an academic forum on North Korea.

The forum was hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

Asher was a senior advisor to former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly under the administration of former President George W. Bush. The former president led a series of hawkish sanctions against what he tagged "rogue states" seeking weapons of mass destruction, including North Korea.

He was one of the authors of the administration's sanctions policy to cut transactions of Macao-based Banco Delta Asia bank in 2007, which was suspected of being used for stashing funds for the regime of then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

"If we want, or have any hope trying to get them to change their nuclear posture, let alone give up their nuclear weapons, we are gonna have to aim at the financial heart of Kim Jong-un's regime, .... and personally I consider that to be a feasible potential strategy," said the ex-official.

The communist country is continuing to engage in illegal activities and weapons proliferation for its financial survival because "they literally don't have enough means to generate wealth internally to satisfy the need of the regime," he added.

The absence of a banking system in the North forces it to rely on the international financial system for survival and in many previous cases the U.S. has been proven to be able to target part of the international financial system, he said, adding that it "is something the U.S. can do uniquely because 95 percent of all global dollar wire transfers go through New York."

   "My personal view is that the Kim dynasty needs to be credibly threatened in order for them to ever make a strategic choice. They see the nuclear weapons system as a thing that will save them. They need to see the nuclear system as a thing that will destroy them," noted Asher.

Asher's highlight on financial sanctions against the North comes amid quickening efforts by China to resume the six-way forum, involving two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.

The multilateral forum launched in 2003 held its last meeting in late 2008, as the North walked out of the dialogue and continued to develop its nuclear programs.

(Continued at the link below)

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/interview/2013/09/25/70/0800000000AEN20130925009000315F.html

Sanctions not fundamental to resolving North Korea problem: China

I would offer a slightly different view that will upset some and be panned by many.  What the Chinese could be saying between the lines is that the reality is that there is no carrot nor stick that can fundamentally change the Kim Family Regime behavior.  What we have seen since the death of Kim Jong-il is the pattern of behavior that has continued for six decades.  As long as the regime exists it will continue to conduct provocations to gain political and economic concessions, develop its nuclear and missile programs, sustain its huge conventional military, carry on its illicit activities around the world, and oppressing 23 million people under some of the worst human rights conditions in history.  As long as the Kim Family Regime exists the best we are going to be able to do is manage the crises and deter war while preparing for what comes next.  Not the best course of action I know but I believe all the hard-line and soft-line proposals will have no effect on the fundamental behavior and nature of the Regime.  But I do look forward to the silver bullet that I know someone will propose.  Unfortunately like most things in the real world there is no silver bullet.  But management of the situation and crises may be the least bad course of action (but again, management must include preparations for what comes next and I think we have to focus on the long term and when there is no longer a Kim Family Regime because getting to that is going to cost a lot of blood and treasure mainly of our long standing treaty ally, the ROK )

V/R

Dave

Sanctions not fundamental to resolving North Korea problem: China

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/09/us-korea-north-china-idUSBRE92803E20130309

BEIJING | Fri Mar 8, 2013 10:04pm EST

(Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Saturday sanctions were not the "fundamental" way to resolve North Korea-related issues and all sides should exercise calm and restraint.

The United Nations this week imposed new sanctions on North Korea following its third nuclear test on February 12.China, the isolated regime's only major ally and a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, supported the sanctions and said it wanted the measures fully implemented.

(Continued at the link below)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/09/us-korea-north-china-idUSBRE92803E20130309

North Korean Leader Vows ‘High-Profile’ Retaliation

Continued evidence that Kim Jong-un is following the Kim Family Regime playbook that has been in effect for 6 decades.

Mr. Kim threw his weight behind his government’s escalating standoff with Washington when he called a meeting of top security and foreign affairs officials and gave an instruction in his name. He inherited the posts of supreme party and military leaders from his father, Kim Jong-il, who died in December 2011.

Actually he has assumed new posts with new names because Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il retain their posts even in mortal death. That is why we can say that north Korea is not only ruled by a mafia-like crime family and cult but also by a "necrotocracy" – the only country rulled by dead people.

V.R

Dave

January 27, 2013

North Korean Leader Vows ‘High-Profile’ Retaliation

By CHOE SANG-HUN

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/world/asia/north-korea.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=print

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has ordered his top military and party officials to take “substantial and high-profile important state measures” to retaliate against American-led United Nations sanctions on the country, the North’s official media reported Sunday.

North Korea did not clarify what those measures might be, but it referred to a series of earlier statements in which Mr. Kim’s government has threatened to launch more long-range rockets and conduct a third nuclear test to build an ability to “target” the United States.

Mr. Kim threw his weight behind his government’s escalating standoff with Washington when he called a meeting of top security and foreign affairs officials and gave an instruction in his name. He inherited the posts of supreme party and military leaders from his father, Kim Jong-il, who died in December 2011.

By calling such a meeting and having it reported in state news media, Mr. Kim appeared to be asserting his leadership in what his country called an “all-out action” against the United States, unlike his father, who tended to remain reclusive during similar confrontations.

“At the consultative meeting, Kim Jong-un expressed the firm resolution to take substantial and high-profile important state measures in view of the prevailing situation,” said the North’s Korean Central News Agency, or K.C.N.A. “He advanced specific tasks to the officials concerned.”

The K.C.N.A. dispatch, which was distributed on Sunday, was dated Saturday, indicating that the meeting in Pyongyang, the capital, took place then. That was the same day on which the North’s main party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said that the United Nations Security Council’s resolution last Tuesday calling for tightening sanctions against the North left it with “no other option” but a nuclear test.

“A nuclear test is what the people demand,” it said in a commentary.

The resolution was adopted unanimously — with the support of the North’s traditional protector, China — as punishment for its Dec. 12 rocket launching. The Security Council determined that the launching was a cover for testing intercontinental ballistic missile technology and a violation of its earlier resolutions banning North Korea from conducting such tests.

(Continued at the link below)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/world/asia/north-korea.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=print

U.S. circulates draft North Korea rebuke at UN

I do have to question the logic here:

The U.S.-Chinese deal, they said, was that Washington would forgo the idea of immediate new sanctions, while Beijing would accept the idea of a resolution instead of a statement. This makes the rebuke more forceful.

Some six weeks after north Korea violated UN Resolutions we might see the Security Council finally vote on a resolution that will contain no new sanctions and no substantive punishment for violating UN Resolutions yet because China would accept the idea of the Resolution it is somehow more forceful. Do we think that north Korea is really afraid of China and that it fears Chinese support of a "forceful rebuke?"   I think Kim Jong-un and his advisors will only be more emboldened to undertake future provocations (after they get done laughing about how they got away with something again).  Some of the winners in this will certainly be Kim Jong-un's advisors who can say "I told you so" - they knew that there would be no substantive response and no real punishment other than words.

V/R

Dave

U.S. circulates draft North Korea rebuke at UN

By Louis Charbonneau | Reuters – 49 mins ago

http://news.yahoo.com/u-circulates-draft-north-korea-rebuke-un-000042407.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States has circulated a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council that would condemn North Korea for its December rocket launch and calls for tightening existing U.N. sanctions, diplomats said on Monday.

The draft was the result of a deal between the United States and China, the envoys said on condition of anonymity. Even though the draft does not call for any new sanctions against Pyongyang, diplomats said China's support for the resolution represented a significant diplomatic blow to Pyongyang.

"We hope to have a vote midweek," one diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

China said earlier on Monday that the Security Council needed to pass a cautious resolution on North Korea, adding that this was the best way to ensure regional tensions did not escalate further.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin voiced Moscow's backing for the draft text last week.

(Continued at the link below)

http://news.yahoo.com/u-circulates-draft-north-korea-rebuke-un-000042407.html

U.S., China in deal on U.N. North Korea rebuke; Russia to back it

I will believe it when I see it.  According to the article no new sanctions but only the expansion of the current ones.  As I have said, too little, too late.  Rather than another resolution I would rather the Chinese cooperate on cutting off the flow of hard currency to the north.  It would be good to execute another Banco Delta Asia operation as that would have an impact on Kim Jong-un's decision making.

V/R
Dave

U.S., China in deal on U.N. North Korea rebuke; Russia to back it

3:26pm EST

By Louis Charbonneau

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/18/us-korea-north-un-idUSBRE90H16W20130118

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States and China have struck a tentative deal on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution condemning North Korea for its December rocket launch, U.N. diplomats said on Friday, and Russia predicted it would be approved by the council.

The resolution would not impose new sanctions, but would call for expanding existing U.N. sanctions measures against Pyongyang, the envoys said on condition of anonymity. They added that China's support for the move would be a significant diplomatic blow to Pyongyang.

The 15-nation council could adopt the compromise resolution next week, they said.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin confirmed the diplomats' comments in remarks quoted by the Russian state-run RIA Novosti news agency, saying that adoption was likely early next week.

"I expect we will support it," RIA quoted Churkin as saying. "I don't expect that the U.N. Security Council members will have any serious problems (with the resolution)."

"Our position is that the North Korean rocket launch is a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution, so the council should react," he said.

South Korean Ambassador Kim Sook told reporters that the draft might take a few days to reach the council.

The United States had wanted to punish North Korea with a U.N. Security Council resolution that imposed new sanctions against Pyongyang, but Beijing rejected that option.

Beijing had wanted the council to merely issue a statement calling for the council's North Korea sanctions committee to expand the existing U.N. blacklists, diplomats said.

The tentative deal, they said, was that Washington would forgo the idea of immediate new sanctions, while Beijing would accept the idea of a resolution instead of a statement, which makes the rebuke more forceful.

(Continued at the link below)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/18/us-korea-north-un-idUSBRE90H16W20130118