What about those North Koreans?

During an interview with the New York Times about the Iran nuclear deal, former Secretary of State John Kerry, in his usual candid manner, mentioned that in the beginning of the negotiations with Iran he was taken aback by how much the Iranians didn’t like or trust us.

Kerry said they openly acknowledged that for their own survival, they had built backdoor ways around UN-imposed sanctions with other sympathetic nations out of necessity. It turns out it was not easy for Iranians to be locked outside the western dominated system of global commerce, which caused harm to ordinary Iranians and frustrated their nation’s economic development.

This frustration, he said, fermented into outright anger and distrust, making the deal probably more difÀcult than it needed to be.

A Geneva-based lobby group, called Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, just published a report in which it was found that North Koreans were implicated in 18 of the 29 rhino horn and ivory smuggling cased involving diplomats since 1986.

The report points out that how much of this shadowy commerce is for personal gain and how much is to meet the North Korean regime’s thirst for hard currency is difÀcult to know, though the report speculates the two motives may overlap. Sanctions have been in place since Mr. Kim’s father was leader.

The report brings to light the existence of two government departments in Pyongyang, Bureaus 38 and 39, which exist solely to amass hard currency for the regime. North Korean diplomats earn pitifully poor salaries and the report notes they are encouraged to supplement their income. The report gave an example, saying over the decades of sanctions, funding for North Korean embassy staff was so tiny that on several occasions the staff in Zambia found it necessary to go Àshing in a nearby river to catch food for their embassy’s national day celebrations.

Diplomats and other Koreans living abroad are encouraged to engage in extracurricular activities to generate extra income and are expected to pay most of what they earn from their legal or illegal entrepreneurial endeavours back to Pyong-yang as “loyalty money.”

The reports quotes a North Korean defector who worked in Bureau 38 where he recounted many times he had brokered meetings between criminals organizations and North Korean diplomats who would bring gold, ivory and rhino horns to be sold for hard currency.

North Korea diplomats have been in Africa for decades. After the decolonization of Africa, resentment remained towards former European colonial masters and new African nations openly sought alternative allies, particularly outcast nations like communist Cuba and North Korea. Both were welcomed in a large way into Africa.

North Korea has embassies in 10 sub-Saharan countries and has funded a number of construction projects, including mega power stations with interest-free loans and they’ve also provided help in training African Special Forces and have sold them military equipment.

African nation are hesitant to clamp down on illicit contraband when diplomats of a supportive and generous nation are involved.

The report tells of one such case. In 2015, a known North Korean spy was detained in Mozambique along with a counsellor from North Korea’s embassy in South Africa. Their vehicle was stopped and searched by police where inside was found a briefcase with $100,000 in US cash and 4.5 kilos of rhino horns. However, moving very quickly, Mozambique government ofÀcials intervened, taking over the case. Both were deported back without the cash or ivory.

Another case tells of a North Korean trade ofÀcial in Zimbabwe who was making so much money as a go-between for illicit trade in a large range of contraband — including arms and counterfeit US $100 bills — that the estimates ranged as high as $1billion annually. The defector reported sums of $200,000 US in loyalty money would be regularly sent to Bureau 38, making Zimbabwe one of the top earners for Mr. Kim.

The repost says the problem is that diplomatic immunity stymies needed policing. Mr. Kim has found a legal loophole to sanctions, because few governments are willing to clamp down on a diplomatic privilege they themselves enjoy. We also now know other countries have gone underground because of sanctions. Obviously, economic sanctions force criminal behaviour when survival is at stake. The report ends by saying it looks certain that in the future with even stiffer sanctions placed upon North Korea, its illegal activity in illicit contraband is bound to crank up and things will get a lot worse before it gets better for the transnational crime unit..