UN experts say NKorea is exporting nuke technology

UN
experts say NKorea is exporting nuke technology

UNITED NATIONS—North Korea is exporting
nuclear and ballistic missile technology and using multiple
intermediaries, shell companies and overseas criminal networks to
circumvent U.N. sanctions, U.N. experts said in a report obtained by The
Associated Press. The seven-member panel monitoring the
implementation of sanctions against North Korea said its research
indicates that Pyongyang is involved in banned nuclear and ballistic
activities in Iran, Syria and Myanmar. It called for further study of
these suspected activities and urged all countries to try to prevent
them. The 47-page report, obtained late Thursday by AP, and a
lengthy annex document sanctions violations reported by U.N. member
states, including four cases involving arms exports and two seizures of
luxury goods by Italy—two yachts and high-end recording and video
equipment. The report also details the broad range of techniques that
North Korea is using to try to evade sanctions imposed by the U.N.
Security Council after its two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. Council
diplomats discussed the report by the experts from Britain, Japan, the
United States, France, South Korea, Russia and China at a closed-door
meeting on Thursday. Its release happened to coincide with
heightened tensions between North Korea and South Korea over the March
sinking of a South Korean navy ship which killed 46 sailors. The council
is waiting for South Korea to decide what action it wants the U.N.'s
most powerful body to take in response to the sinking, which a
multinational investigation determined was caused by a North Korean
torpedo. The panel of experts said there is general agreement
that the U.N. embargoes on nuclear and ballistic missile related items
and technology, on arms exports and imports except light weapons, and on
luxury goods, are having an impact. But it said the list of
eight entities and five individuals currently subject to an asset freeze
and travel ban seriously understates those known to be engaged in
banned activities and called for additional names to be added. It noted
that North Korea moved quickly to have other companies take over
activities of the eight banned entities. The experts said an
analysis of the four North Korean attempts to illegally export arms
revealed that Pyongyang used "a number of masking techniques" to avoid
sanctions. They include providing false descriptions and mislabeling of
the contents of shipping containers, falsifying the manifest and
information about the origin and destination of the goods, "and use of
multiple layers of intermediaries, shell companies, and financial
institutions," the panel said. It noted that a chartered jet
intercepted in Thailand in December carrying 35 tons of conventional
weapons including surface-to-air missiles from North Korea was owned by a
company in the United Arab Emirates, registered in Georgia, leased to a
shell company registered in New Zealand and then chartered to another
shell company registered in Hong Kong—which may have been an attempt to
mask its destination. North Korea is also concealing arms
exports by shipping components in kits for assembly overseas, the
experts said. As one example, the panel said it learned after
North Korean military equipment was seized at Durban harbor in South
Africa that scores of technicians from the North had gone to the
Republic of Congo, where the equipment was to have been assembled. The
experts called for "extra vigilance" at the first overseas port
handling North Korean cargo and close monitoring of airplanes flying
from the North, saying Pyongyang is believed to use air cargo "to handle
high valued and sensitive arms exports." While North Korea
maintains a wide network of trade offices which do legitimate business
as well as most of the country's illicit trade and covert acquisitions,
the panel said Pyongyang "has also established links with overseas
criminal networks to carry out these activities, including the
transportation and distribution of illicit and smuggled cargoes." This
may also include goods related to weapons of mass destruction and arms,
it added. Under council resolutions, all countries are
required to submit reports on what they are doing to implement sanctions
but as of April 30 the panel said it had still not heard from 112 of
the 192 U.N. member states—including 51 in Africa, 28 in Asia, and 25 in
Latin America and the Caribbean. While no country reported
on nuclear or ballistic missile-related imports or exports from North
Korea since the second sanctions resolution was adopted last June, the
panel said it reviewed several U.S. and French government assessments,
reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency, research papers and
media reports indicating Pyongyang's continuing involvement in such
activities. These reports indicate North Korea "has continued
to provide missiles, components, and technology to certain countries
including Iran and Syria ... (and) has provided assistance for a nuclear
program in Syria, including the design and construction of a thermal
reactor at Dair Alzour," the panel said. Syria denied the
allegations in a letter to the IAEA, but the U.N. nuclear agency is
still trying to obtain reports on the site and its activities, the panel
said. The experts said they are also looking into
"suspicious activity in Myanmar," including activities of Namchongang
Trading, one of the companies subject to U.N. sanctions, and reports
that Japan in June 2009 arrested three individuals for attempting to
illegally export a magnetometer—which measures magnetic fields—to
Myanmar via Malaysia allegedly under the direction of a company known to
be associated with illicit procurement for North Korea's nuclear and
military programs. The company was not identified.