From East Asia Intel, Subscription. SEOUL — Analysts are scrutinizing all accessible North Korean financial records to see how the DPRK could possibly have come up with the enormous sums needed to carry out a nuclear weapons program, top U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill suggested.
The question is whether Kim Jong-Il is drawing upon the vast sums heÂ’s believed to have deposited in Swiss bank accounts, much of it made from gold mines in and around the North Korean town of Unsan in a mountainous region far north of Pyongyang.
The CIA has long believed that the "Dear Leader" had made off with about $4 billion from the mines and may well have increased that sum through judicious investments. HeÂ’s got British experts working to exploit the Unsan project, originally developed by American and British engineers and exploited by the Japanese before their defeat in World War II. Analysts have also concluded that the search for gold and other minerals in North Korea is a major reason why China is so interested in supporting the existing regime and continues to coddle Kim Jong-Il, as it did his father, Kim Il-Sung.
A British businessman, Roger Barrett, operates one of the few foreign companies that has actually made a profit in North Korea. His firm, Korea Business Consultants, has been advising on advanced techniques for extracting gold. He said he was making money from the investment before the United States cut off the conduit for North KoreaÂ’s access to hard currency via Banco Delta Asia in Macao.
Asked about Kim Jong-IlÂ’s treasure trove in Swiss accounts, Hill dropped an elaborate hint of U.S. concern before a forum of business people sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce in Seoul.
Rather than saying he knew nothing about it, which might have been a diplomatic response, he said bluntly: “If a country pulls out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and announces it’s making plutonium, it’s fair to say the country will have its records kind of looked at.” Hill added, for good measure, “That’s life in the big city,” before driving home the point that the DPRK (he used the initials) "needs to understand, as long as it’s producing nuclear weapons, we’re going to have a real close look at the financing.”
Hill’s remarks impressed diplomatic analysts as a scarcely veiled threat of the economic repercussions of North Korea’s refusal to return to six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program — and of the North’s recent boasts that it’s going right ahead building nuclear warheads. The small community of foreign businessmen in Pyongyang, fearful of the impact of the cutoff of North Korean funds on their own dealings, was highly critical of the pressure from any U.S. action affecting North Korea’s finances.
Remember all of the outrage and boycotting of businesses dealing with South Africa not too long ago? Well, what about all the human rights violations of the NORKS today? Nobody putting any heat on Mr. Barrett or others making money off the NORKS. Typical Left hypocracy.
The European Business Association in Pyongyang denounced “the campaign as an attempt to dissuade foreign companies from doing business with North Korea and to drive the North Korean economy into bankruptcy.”
That's a fair assessment. Wish it would work faster and bring down Kimmies Hell on Earth, so the people of North Korea could have a chance at a better life.
Hill denied, however, that the United States had imposed sanctions by banning U.S. financial institution from having anything to do with any account set up in the U.S. on behalf of Banco Delta Asia in Macao or from imposing similar restrictions on other firms aiding and abetting North Korean trade. “These are not economic sanctions,” he said, even though North Korea often describes them as such.
Works for me. Who cares what you call it.
“What we have going is an attempt to protect against known money laundering” he said. “A small bank in Macao was designated as a money-laundering concern. As a result, Macao authorities went ahead and froze the accounts of Banco Delta Asia.” Hill estimated the DPRK had 30 or 40 accounts totaling about $20 million.
Significant, but still chump change when it comes to Nuke programs.
Hill indicated the sum was trivial compared to the benefits North Korea would reap if it returned to the table and accepted a deal for giving up its nukes.
We better not start giving away the farm to dictators who welsh on deals.
“Look at the nature of what’s on the table,” he said, alluding to the promise of an enormous energy agreement if North Korea gave up its nuclear weapons. “If you try to put a dollar value on energy assistance,” he said, “you would see the DPRK would get energy assistance worth probably billions of dollars.”
WHY should they even get one red cent????? And who told Mr. Hill that he has the authority to talk about giving US taxpayers' money away like Slick Willie and Halfbright used to do?
Estimating that $20 million equaled “a week’s worth of assistance,” Hill asked rhetorically, “Why would someone hold up reform for the sake of a $20-million account?” “What the DPRK needs to do,” he said, “is to take a deep breath and think this thing through.”
People who systematically destroy their own people are psychopaths. You do not negotiate with these monsters. And you do not believe them without extensive verification. It's a survival thing.