North Korea’s suburban HQ
NORTH Korea is suspected of funding its nuclear weapons programme from a house in a British suburb.
The address of a detached property in Blackheath, south- east London, has been revealed as the registered address of the Korea National Insurance Corporation – the nation’s state- controlled insurance firm – and may have funnelled up to £ 33million a year to the country ruled by Kim Jong- un, it is claimed.
The EU describes the firm as “a state- owned and controlled company generating substantial foreign- exchange revenue which could contribute to North Korea’s nuclearrelated, ballistic missile-- related or other weapons of mass- destruction- related programmes”.
The business is listed as closed since October last year, according to Companies House, but records show it had been in operation since 1996. Accounts reveal that in 2014 it had total assets of £ 113million.
Government offi cials confi rmed that the company had been closed down and its assets frozen because of fears it was funding the development of weapons of mass destruction.
The EU move followed UN sanctions imposed on it in July 2015 stating that the company’s headquarters in Pyongyang are linked to Offi ce 39 of the Korean Workers’ Party, which the US government has claimed is a secretive unit set up to offer support to North Korean’s leadership and to manage slush funds.
Curbs on activities at the Blackheath property were put in place in last April after the branch was identifi ed. The EU has previously imposed sanctions on the company’s Hamburg offi ce in Germany.
A Treasury spokesman said: “The UK has fully complied and implemented the UN sanctions.”
North Korea’s embassy in London has described the allegations as “groundless”.