North Korea faces naval blockade over nuclear arms

Herald Correspondent ^ | April 28 2003 | By Shane Green, Herald Correspondent

[heyhey]

North Korea faces naval blockade over nuclear arms

The United States is said to be considering a selective shipping blockade against North Korea to prevent the communist state following through on its threat to proliferate nuclear weapons.

The Pentagon strategy has been dubbed Cuba Lite, a lesser version of the US blockade during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

The plan is in response to last week's claim by North Korea to the US that it already had nuclear weapons, and was prepared to make a "physical demonstration" of them or "transfer" them to other countries.

North Korea also said it had nearly finished reprocessing 8000 spent fuel rods to make plutonium for several more nuclear weapons within months, a claim some US officials doubt.

In Germany, prosecutors confirmed on Saturday that a director of a German company suspected of supplying aluminium tubes to North Korea's nuclear program had been held for questioning.

The announcement came after the news magazine Der Spiegel said the tubes, essential in making enriched uranium, were loaded onto a French ship in Hamburg early this month just as the German federal government vetoed the shipment.

The Pentagon plan would include the US Navy intercepting suspected North Korean vessels, similar to an action in December when US and Spanish forces stopped a North Korean ship near Yemen carrying 15 Scud missiles and warheads.

"It's a kind of Cuba Lite strategy," The Sunday Telegraph in London quoted a Pentagon official as saying. "It wouldn't be a total blockade. International shipping would not necessarily be blocked from going in to North Korea, but the passage of North Korean shipping would be contingent on what we knew was being carried."

The strategy has the advantage of being less confrontational, such as a selective air strike against North Korea's nuclear facilities, to which the volatile regime could easily respond by lashing out against South Korea and Japan.

The US is also planning to talk to its regional allies South Korea and Japan about the possibility of UN sanctions against Pyongyang, which has previously said it would regard such moves as a declaration of war.

The Bush Administration appears divided on how to deal with North Korea, underlined by the revelation that North Korea told the State Department about the reprocessing last month, but the information was kept from Defence Department hawks.

Those who received the information were concerned it would be used by hardliners to scuttle last week's talks with North Korea in Beijing, the first meeting since Pyongyang admitted in October to a nuclear arms program.

Intense diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the crisis are continuing, with a South Korean delegation travelling to North Korea yesterday in an attempt to persuade its neighbour to abandon its nuclear weapons.

Over the weekend President George Bush phoned his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, about the crisis.

North Korea's nuclear weapons claim was seen as severely embarrassing for Beijing, which had convened the talks. China has been increasingly frustrated with the behaviour of North Korea - to which it has acted as a mentor and provided substantial aid.

In Tokyo, Japan's Defence Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, said yesterday that North Korea's main aim was maintaining its regime and socialism.

The hawkish defence chief said he did not believe Japan would go nuclear to counter North Korea.

"I never support such a discussion that we will possess nuclear weapons because North Korea possesses them."

[risk]

How soon before South Koreans succumb to the temptation to skim off the nuclear trade?

[heyhey]

German businessman suspected of helping North Korea's nuclear programme State prosecutors in Germany confirmed that the director of a Stuttgart-based company suspected of supplying aluminium tubes for North Korea's nuclear programme has been detained for questioning.

The weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported that 22 tonnes of aluminium tubes were loaded onto a French ship in Hamburg earlier this month.

The shipment, officially on its way to China, was stopped by German authorities. Precision aluminium tubes are required for facilities to produce enriched uranium. Last week's talks between the U.S., North Korea and China were broken off on Thursday.

U.S. envoy to Asia James Kelly said Pyongyang had revealed it possesses at least one nuclear weapon. Kelly is currently briefing allies in the region on the results of the talks.

[dighton]

"Dear Leader is greatly indignant! You blockade Foster Grants and greasy kid stuff, we kick US imperialst asses!"

[heyhey]

North Korea: A Gangster State

By Owen Rathbone on 04/27/03



With North Korea now in possession of nuclear weapons technology and ready to export it to the highest bidder, tensions on the Korean peninsula could not be higher. Yet even if the nuclear issue is resolved – which it will not be easily – North Korea will continue to be a thorn in the side of many nations for a reason not known to many outsiders: It is a virtual gangster state kept alive by rackets ranging from illegal drug sales to counterfeit money schemes.

Some estimates, in fact, suggest that North Korea’s illegal exports earn nearly as much in foreign currency as its legal trading activities. According to U.S. News and World Report, Pyongyang’s illicit trade represents $500 million a year in earnings, while official exports account for $650 million a year. Missile exports are in the range of $100 million a year – an amount less than the proceeds from illicit trade. North Korea’s rulers, in other words, appear heavily reliant on earnings from criminal activities to prop up their ailing regime.

The DPRK’s drug peddling days date back to the 1970s, when the Kim Il-sung government saw the drug trade as a quick and easy way to earn foreign currency. Opium became the drug of choice, as it could be produced cheaply and efficiently in mountainous areas throughout the country. When North Korea’s economic situation worsened in the 1980s and 1990s, Pyongyang became a drug trafficker on a more massive scale.

Isolated from the international community, plagued by food crises and crippled by escalating costs to support its military and nuclear program, North Korea today shows no signs of getting out of the drug trade. The Stalinist state is now thought to produce at least 44 tons of opium a year for export. Not only has the North increased opium production, but it has also branched out into amphetamines and heroin.

The most lucrative market for North Korean drugs is Japan, which has an illegal stimulant market estimated at more than $9.3 billion annually. From 1998 to 2001, over 2,473 pounds of methamphetamines from North Korea were confiscated by Japanese customs. In 1999, the National Police Agency traced back 40 percent of all illegal stimulants seized in Japan to the reclusive communist state.

North Korean ships have been caught with large shipments of illegal drugs on numerous occasions. In 1997, Japanese investigators discovered $95 million worth of amphetamines in the cargo of a North Korean ship docked at Hososhima. In the summer of 2001, Taiwanese authorities seized more than 154 pounds of heroin from another vessel. And Australian authorities last week, after a five day chase, captured a North Korean ship with $48 million worth of heroin in its hold.

The DPRK’s share of the Japanese drug market has grown exponentially in recent years, revealing Pyongyang’s economic desperation. Although China and North Korea each account for about one-third of illegal drug sales in Japan, more and more drugs are making their way from the North. "Recently there has been an alarming increase of drugs coming from North Korea," says Naoto Takeuchi of Japan's National Police Agency. "The drugs are high-quality and neatly packed. This leads us to believe that a well-organized, well-funded body is behind this drug smuggling,” adds the National Public Safety Commission's Sadakazu Tanikagi.

Not content merely with earning foreign currency illegally through drug sales, North Korea has gone one better by actually producing fake American dollars and Japanese yen. Heading a massive counterfeiting operation that extends worldwide, the Kim Jong-il government is said to have sophisticated underground printing facilities that produce banknotes of exceptional quality.

In common with the drug trade, North Korea’s counterfeiting activities escalated in the 1990s during worsening economic times. At that time, the North improved the quality of counterfeit bills and issued them through its foreign trade and foreign missions overseas. Several high profile incidents revealed clear government involvement in counterfeit operations. In 1996, the North Korean trade councilor to Romania was expelled for exchanging $50,000 in forged bills. Also that year, another DPRK official was arrested in Ulan Bator, Mongolia for dumping $100,000 worth of counterfeit bills onto the black market.

In another case two years later in Vladivostok, Russia, a senior North Korean Workers Party official was caught attempting to exchange $30,000 in fake currency for rubles. A videotape also purportedly exists of Kim Jong-nam, the son of Kim Jong-il, using fake dollars at a casino in Macao.

At present, North Korea is thought to print around $15 million in counterfeit U.S. dollars every year.

Less well-known is North Korea’s dealings in counterfeit yen. It is unclear how much fake yen has been printed by Pyongyang, but a former executive of a North Korea-affiliated bank, interviewed by Japan’s Weekly Post, claims as much as 600 billion yen has flooded the Japanese market over the past few years. “Economic disaster is encouraging the North Korean government to print more,” said the executive, who accused the Japanese government of a massive cover up.

Although it is not possible to verify if the 600 billion yen figure is accurate, the number of reported cases of counterfeit yen seems to be on the increase. A former Japanese diplomat, also interviewed by the Weekly Post, remarked, "While the North Korean government is encouraging its people living in Japan to remit money to North Korea, it is increasing the smuggling of counterfeit yen. The printing factory is believed to exist underground near Pyongyang."

Whether it is trafficking drugs or printing fake currency, the North Korean regime appears willing to engage in any activity to perpetuate its existence. Kim Jong-il’s more recent venture into nuclear blackmail merely conforms to an earlier pattern of Mafioso style leadership. For the United States and countries throughout Asia, a major question that arises – if the nuclear problem can be solved first – will be how to wean North Korea from its illegal sources of income and encourage it to engage in legitimate commerce. If a miracle occurs and Pyongyang proves willing to change – or if it is forced to change – the U.S. and others will still need to provide massive economic assistance to prevent the North from going back to its gangster roots. But how to give such aid without being conned once again, that is a question with no simple answer.

[risk]

The other thing that complicates matters is South Korea's hatred of the Japanese. It's been said that the hate is so strong some of them would like to reunify with the north just to get access to the north's nuclear capability -- and point it toward Japan themselves.

I hope this isn't true, but after 9/11, I've joined the rest of my fellow Americans in thinking beyond what only seems likely.

[bart99]

With all this money coming from illicit operations (drugs and counterfiting), then sanctions would seem to be reasonable, since their impact would be slight. Apparently NK has enough money to do what it needs to do. They can BUY food and oil...... they don't need 'aid' if they have all these enterprises.
It's time for the US, Japan, SK, and even China to stop being conned by NK. I think a blockade coupled with withholdinng of all "humanitarian assistance" would be a reasonable first step.

[cardinal4]

At the risk of sounding naive, I had no idea the DPRKs were involved in drugs. Communist nations have always had strict rules on drugs for their citizens, but trafficked in them at the government level. The morality ready on Marxism is zero..

[green team 1999]

to last week's claim by North Korea to the US that it already had nuclear weapons, and was prepared to make a "physical demonstration" of them or "transfer" them to other countries.

i hope the north koreans are bluffing!

[Steel Wolf]

This is exactly right. Not only do the North Koreans traffic in narcotics and counterfiet money, but they run other illegal activities, such as gambling, and have even resold U.N. food aid for cash. A 'selective' naval blockade that only filters out illegal goods would strangle their economy.

[ApesForEvolution]

Between the dad gum Frunks and our own State Department (colink powellsky) there's no telling what we really are facing from the Korean Peninsula...it's blatantly obvious that France needs another good wass-hipping and the northcomms need to be annihilated.

And I highly doubt that the chicomms aren't playing both sides in this. They sent the massive amounts of chemicals needed to process the fuel rods (and Lord knows what else!) to the northcomms over their COMMON BORDER for crying out loud!! How do we stop that!!??

Oh, I know - the communists in Red china are our friends...

I sense a global conspiracy of islamocommiefascists working against us. France, Islamonuts, China, etc.

[ApesForEvolution]

As if their desperation leading to proliferation of nuclear and missile technology weren't enough reason to take this regime out, then this should be:

"The DPRK’s share of the Japanese drug market has grown exponentially in recent years, revealing Pyongyang’s economic desperation. Although China and North Korea each account for about one-third of illegal drug sales in Japan, more and more drugs are making their way from the North. "Recently there has been an alarming increase of drugs coming from North Korea," says Naoto Takeuchi of Japan's National Police Agency. "The drugs are high-quality and neatly packed. This leads us to believe that a well-organized, well-funded body is behind this drug smuggling,” adds the National Public Safety Commission's Sadakazu Tanikagi.

Not content merely with earning foreign currency illegally through drug sales, North Korea has gone one better by actually producing fake American dollars and Japanese yen. Heading a massive counterfeiting operation that extends worldwide, the Kim Jong-il government is said to have sophisticated underground printing facilities that produce banknotes of exceptional quality"

When will the world realize that some models of 'civilization' just don't work and are actually the most blatant perpetrators of evil ever concocted...?

[George W. Bush]

Your picture of Kim's hair frightened me. I won't be able to sleep.

[Steel Wolf]

As bad as that image is, the full story is worse. Right now, as we speak, Kim is probably three sheets to the wind, relaxing with his Comfort Squad (yes, that's what they're called), which is composed of various foriegn women, mostly buxom blondes. His day to day life revolves around beautiful women, movies, alcohol, video games, surfing the internet, and God knows what else, for decades.

It's a wonder that he's not more like Ozzy than he already is.

[George W. Bush]

You forgot the part that he has more pornos than Imelda Marcos had shoes.

[drlevy88]

I wonder if Kim is registered as a freeper?

[the lone wolf]

I wonder if Kim is registered as a freeper?


I strongly doubt it. He is reported a allergic to logic and common sense.

But I wouldn't be surprised to find him over at DU.

[slasher82]

LOL!!!

[MetalHeadConservative35]

you know? i could bet any money that you could show that picture to any non-political person and they would say "hey!!! wasnt he in that bruce lee movie?"

this guy looks more like a hollyweirdo than a dictator (although the difference between the two is slim)

[Caipirabob]

Ruthless dictator by day, lead singer for "Los Lobos" by night...