North Korea using global banks in illegal deals, says UN report
NEWYORK: Global banks are being used to facilitate payments of vast sums in illegal deals that are undermining United Nations Security Council sanctions, a UN report found.
The report, made public on Tuesday, says that banks and insurance companies continue to unwittingly allow payments and provide coverage for vessels involved in “ever-larger, multimillion-dollar” deals.
“Global banks are involved in two main problems,” Hugh Griffiths, the head of the UN panel overseeing sanctions on North Korea, said in an interview Tuesday.
They are facilitating the transfer of funds for prohibited ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products.
And they’re also facilitating prohibited coal exports involving deals organised by North Korean diplomats.”
In one case, the report alleged that a series of North Korean-directed payments totaling more than $500,000 were made through transactions linked to a Jpmorgan Chase & Co. account in New York. The transactions were used for a coal shipment aboard the vessel Wise Honest. The 25,500 metric tons of coal aboard the Wise Honest was sold for almost $3 million, the report said.
The report said the shipment was one example of how North Korea continues to profit from coal exports and how commodity traders make hefty commissions from such deals.
The sanctions are a crucial aspect of President Donald Trump’s effort to get Pyongyang to eliminate its nuclear programme. BLOOMBERG