Kim Jong Un has a fleet of North Korean ghost ships sneaking around the high seas to beat sanctions
By Jeanne Whalen Jeanne Whalen Reporter covering business around the world Email Bio Follow April 24 at 7:09 PM In April 2018, a ship carrying $3 million worth of coal slipped into Indonesian waters with its identification transmitter switched off and its flag hidden from view.
“It’s anarchy,” Hugh Griffiths, the outgoing coordinator of the U.N. monitors, said in an interview. “These massive gaps in maritime and financial governance will provide Chairman Kim with an economic lifeline for months, if not years, to come.” In the case of the Wise Honest, a globe-trotting North Korean salesman arranged the shipment by holding meetings at Pyongyang’s embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia — and then paid an Indonesian broker through bank transfers facilitated by JPMorgan Chase, according to bank documents and other evidence gathered by the monitors.
It would also require countries to boost regulation of insurers, banks and commodities traders to ensure they more thoroughly screen the shipments and transactions they support, the monitors said in the report. Singaporean officials said that they were investigating the tanker from their country and that they take their obligations to enforce sanctions “very seriously.” South Korea said it will “conduct a thorough investigation” on possible sanctions violations.The U.N. Security Council banned North Korean coal exports — the country’s largest source of external revenue — in August 2017, after Pyongyang carried out several missile launches.
Still, the Griffiths team does have some teeth: It can recommend that the Security Council impose sanctions on companies and ships that violate the rules, a punishment that can hamper their ability to trade. Jong presented a business card introducing himself as president of Jinmyong Trading Group and Jinmyong Joint Bank in Pyongyang — the latter of which the United States hit with sanctions in 2017.
After Indonesia detained the ship in April 2018, officials there told the monitors that a South Korean company, Enermax Korea, was the “final destination/recipient” of the coal, according to the report.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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