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Where’s the money coming from for North Korea’s nuclear programme?

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Just days after the United Nations passed a resolution to impose yet more sanctions on North Korea, Pyongyang responded by saying the United States would suffer the greatest pain for its role in the ruling. North Korea start a repeated missile launches and nuclear explosions, this suggest is not yet out of fund. So where exactly is the money coming from? UN report published last year, North Korea has a lucrative trade in the sale of unreported items such as encrypted military communications equipment, air defence systems and satellite- guided missiles. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said North Korea earned 802 million dollar between 1996 and 2016 from the sale of weapons to countries such as Iran, Syria and Libya. The United States has long accused North Korea of printing counterfeit US banknotes. High quality fakes, distributed by North Korean diplomats as they travel aboard and through transactions with European countries, all with the help of Russian agents.

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US should ‘do its duty’ to resolve North Korea nuclear crisis, not blame China

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The nature of the North Korea nuclear problem is a security issue. China supplies North Korea with most of its oil and Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labour. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying saying China was not to blame for the situation on the Korean Peninsula. She said: “The focus of the conflict is not China. The cause of escalating tensions is not China and the key to the problem is also not China.  Foreign Ministry Hua said, that China had “made tremendous sacrifices and paid a heavy price” by implementing sanctions against North Korea. China’s determination and sincerity couldn’t be doubted. China has been saying all along that more sanctions would not help the situation”, Wang Sheng professor of Korean affairs at Jilin University in northeastern China said: “While the United States has been accusing China for not being strict enough in restricting North Korea economically, they can now see that North Korea won’t be stopped even if China imposes more trade pressure”. Cai Jian, a Korean affairs expert from Fudan University in Shanghai, said: “North Korea will not stop developing nuclear weapons because of the sanctions, as the regime now sees greater importance in increasing its bargaining power before any negotiations take place”, So I still think it is not an option for the US to start a war when it seems North Korea’s nuclear weapons are more developed than expected.

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How Chinese diplomacy can shape US policy on North Korea

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The world is at a critical juncture after North Korea’s sixth nuclear test. How the international community reacts to the latest provocation from Kim Jong-un will profoundly affect prospects for peace and stability. Even if China, the main supplier of oil to North Korea, supported this package, the international community may not have been able to force Kim to give up his nuclear programme. Beijing needs to insist on the US committing to dialogue with North Korea. Diplomacy, not sanctions, is the pathway towards greater security for North Korea. The best way to assure North Korea about its security is to end the cold war situation between the two countries.

North Korea has repeatedly signalled that appropriate US measures, like a peace treaty to formally end the Korean war and normalisation of relations between the two countries, could create the conditions for a freeze of its nuclear and missile programmes.

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North Korea threatens to ‘sink’ Japan and reduce US to ‘ashes and darkness’ in response to latest UN sanctions

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A North Korean state agency threatened to use nuclear weapons to sink Japan, and reduce the US to ashes and darkness for supporting a UN Security Council resolution. The 15-member Security Council voted unanimously for banning North Korea’s textile exports, that are the second largest only to coal and mineral, and capping fuel supplies. The North reiterating threats to destroy the US, Japan and South Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in said to respond on North Korea: having our own nuclear weapons will not maintain peace on the Korean peninsula and could lead to a nuclear arms race in northeast Asia. Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters: This announcement is extremely provocative and egregious. It is something that markedly heightens regional tension and is absolutely unacceptable. North Korea had already rejected the Security Council resolution, vowing to press ahead with its nuclear and missile programmes. The North accuses the US, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies.

 

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A total oil embargo on North Korea would only lead to war, as it did with imperial Japan

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A total oil embargo against North Korea would be likely to provoke the same result as it did with imperial Japan , war with the US and friends. Last week, following a series of missile launches and an underground nuclear test, the US ambassador to the UN declared North Korea to be begging for war. This week, the 15- member UN Security Council unanimously passed a raft of new sanctions, including a universal ban on purchasing North Korean textiles (the country’s second-largest export, after coal) and the cessation of all gas exports to the isolated state. What’s more interesting is what was culled from America original proposal: the use of force, if deemed necessary, to board and inspect ships to enforce these economic sanctions; an asset freeze; a travel ban for Kim Jong-un. China and Russia know that a complete oil cut-off would heighten North Korea’s self-destructive tendencies and hasten its collapse. Sanctions have not worked and now cannot work. North Korea is not going to give up.

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North Korea vows to accelerate weapons programme after ‘evil’ sanctions imposed by United Nations

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North Korea decide to accelerate its weapons programmes in response of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council. The UN Security Council unanimously imposed an eighth set of sanctions on the North on Monday, banning it from trading in textiles and restricting its oil imports, which US President Donald Trump said was a prelude to stronger measures. The North’s foreign ministry condemned the new measures in the strongest terms, calling them a full-scale economic blockade driven by the US and aimed at suffocating its state and people. It was another illegal resolution on sanctions piloted by the US, it said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency. The North says it needs nuclear weapons to protect itself from hostile US forces and analysts believe Pyongyang’s weapons programme has made rapid progress under leader Kim Jong-un, with previous sanctions having done little to deter it.

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A total oil embargo on North Korea would only lead to war, as it did with imperial Japan

in ASIA/FAR EAST/PRESS RELEASE/REGIONS by

A total oil embargo against North Korea would be likely to provoke the same result as it did with imperial Japan , war with the US and friends. Last week, following a series of missile launches and an underground nuclear test, the US ambassador to the UN declared North Korea to be begging for war. This week, the 15-member UN Security Council unanimously passed a raft of new sanctions, including a universal ban on purchasing North Korean textiles (the country’s second-largest export, after coal) and the cessation of all gas exports to the isolated state. What’s more interesting is what was culled from America original proposal: the use of force, if deemed necessary, to board and inspect ships to enforce these economic sanctions; an asset freeze; a travel ban for Kim Jong-un. China and Russia know that a complete oil cut-off would heighten North Korea’s self-destructive tendencies and hasten its collapse. Sanctions have not worked and now cannot work. North Korea is not going to give up.

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China says it won’t allow war or chaos on Korean peninsula after backing latest UN sanctions

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China said on Tuesday it will not allow war or chaos on the Korean peninsula after it endorsed the latest UN sanctions against Pyongyang following its nuclear test last week. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: the resolution also reiterated the need to maintain peace and stability across the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia. Geng said “The peninsula issue must be resolved by peacefully and the military solution has no way out”. The UN sanctions are the strongest yet against Pyongyang, and also include bans on textile exports from the North, joint ventures and technology transfers, as well as efforts to stop smuggling of prohibited products. The US was pushing for tougher sanctions – including a full oil embargo, but met resistance from Russia and China, which feared that putting too much pressure on North Korea could escalate tensions. China has already imposed sanctions on Pyongyang including banning seafood imports from North Korea, and Chinese banks reportedly put a stop to transactions by North Koreans on Tuesday.

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How the US can get Chinese and Russian support for regime change in North Korea

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Both China and Russia share borders with the North and are the key to any solution. They each have economic interests that favour stability in the region.  North invests heavily in its military and advanced weapons programmes, spends an estimated 23.3 per cent on the military, in comparison to the South’s 2.6 per cent. The only reason for such high service numbers in both countries is the very palpable threat of renewed conflict. A key sticking point to any solution remains the American troop presence in South Korea. US military personnel are there currently, and multiple installations serve as deterrents to aggression by the North. America benefits in this case not only from the avoidance of nuclear conflict, but also from its continued strong commercial connections with an enlarged Korean market, and the military cost savings of withdrawal. The new reality also ensures greater geopolitical stability in the region (important to allies Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan), and serves as a confidence-building measure for further cooperation by the US with China and Russia on other issues.

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UN experts identify North Korea’s illegal exports worth US$270 million – including commodities sold to China

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North Korea illegally exported coal, iron and other commodities worth at least 270 million dollar to China and other countries including India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, in the six-month period ending in early August in violation of UN sanctions. The experts monitoring sanctions said: Kim Jong-un’s government continues to flout sanctions on commodities as well as an arms embargo and restrictions on shipping and financial activities. Between December 2016 and May 2017, North Korea exported over 79 million dollar of iron China, the report said. And between October 2016 and May 2017, it exported iron and steel products to Egypt, China, France, India, Ireland and Mexico valued at 305,713 dollar. And since December 2016, the experts said China, Sri Lanka, and India imported one or more of these minerals in violation of sanctions. In addition, the experts said: DPRK officials and entities have engaged in deceptive financial practices, including opening multiple bank accounts in the same country and in neighbouring countries, North Korea continued to hone it’s evasion tactics.

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