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World News See other World News Articles Title: U.S. Traces North Korean Money to Russia And may accuse Russia of violating nonproliferation rules The American Center for Nonproliferation Studies released a report yesterday claiming that North Korean authorities, with the help of private Russian companies, are providing ballistic missile to third countries, Iran, Syria and Pakistan in particular. This information comes at the same time as a scandal is unfolding over the North Korean regime's transfer of a considerable part of its bank accounts to Russia, skirting American sanctions. Although these accusations are only coming from NGOs right now, they may become the case of the next strain in Russian-American relations. Pyongyang's Money Peter Beck, head of the authoritative international NGO International Crisis Group told Kommersant yesterday that Russia is “the last financial refuge for the People's Democratic Republic of Korea.” He added that the United States sees “a high degree of likelihood” in that charge, given Moscow's disinterest in overthrowing the North Korean regime. “I am certain that Washington will soon begin to apply the appropriate pressure on Moscow,” Beck added. It is a serious accusation, considering that only the Central Bank of Russia could work with Pyongyang in the financial sphere. “Like any Russian bank, we can only open accounts for residents,” Kommersant was told in a state bank. “In that connection, the suggestion of a possible transfer of North Korean government or state company accounts to a Russian bank is absurd, to say the least.” North Korea could, however, use the accounts of its embassy in Moscow to transfer money. In that case, the money would be in Vneshtorgbank, which traditionally services the diplomatic missions in Moscow. Vneshtorgbank refused to comment on that suggestion yesterday. “The information you want to receive is in the category of client information. We do not provide that information, regardless of whether have such a legal entity among our clients or not,” Vneshtorgbank senior vice president Vasily Titov told the newspaper yesterday. Another possible recipient of North Korean assets is Vneshekonombank. The servicing of interstate agreements comes within its competency. An interstate agreement was reached with North Korea in the mid-1980s. Under Order No. 621, signed by First President of Russia Boris Yeltsin on June 12, 1992, Vneshekonombank opened “accounts on objects of technical cooperation and military-technical cooperation” with that country. Kommersant was able to confirm that Vneshekonombank still has several accounts with the Foreign Trade Bank of the People's Democratic Republic of Korea. According to data from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, one of the Vneshekonombank accounts in the North Korean bank contained $45.5 million and another contained about $5.5 million, as of January of this year. Turnover was just under $2 million in one account and $2.94 million in the other in the previous month. Moreover, according to a source in the Central Bank, no Korean banks have opened accounts with Vneshekonombank. The Central Bank refused to comment officially on the possibility of transferring North Korean accounts to Russian banks, saying that it considers that information “at least unconfirmed and at most prevocational.” Kommersant was told at Vneshekonombank that North Korea has no accounts except clearing accounts with it. Peter Beck has weighty reasons to say that Washington will soon demand that Moscow stop its financial cooperation with Pyongyang. At the end of last week, the U.S. Department of Finance announced that from now on “all North Korean accounts in foreign banks will be the object of attention and control by the United States.” U.S. Undersecretary of the Treasury Stewart Levey commented that “considering that the regime counterfeits American currency, smuggles narcotics and uses accounts around the world for transactions relating to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the line between legal and illegal North Korean money is practically invisible.” Thus, the U.S. administration has made it known that it will press for the freezing of absolutely all North Korean foreign accounts. Washington has been hunting for North Korean money for a long time, and not without result. The American financial sanctions that had been in place against North Korea for more than a decade were made stricter last year. U.S. President George W. Bush signed an order requiring the Department of Finance to freeze the accounts in American banks of all persons suspected of involvement in the distribution of weapons of mass destruction and nuclear technology. The assets of 13 North Korean companies were frozen by the end of the year, as well as those of 13 Iranian companies and one Syrian company. Washington also declared a financial war on the North Korean regime abroad. In the autumn of last year, the U.S. Department of Finance accused the Chinese Banco Delta Asia, which operates in Macao, of laundering money that a North Korean company received for cigarette and narcotic smuggling and counterfeiting dollars. Washington's pressure on Beijing resulted in the bank breaking its ties with North Korean clients. Last week, several Japanese media reported that North Korea had opened new bank accounts in ten different countries. Sankei Shimbun cited a diplomatic source as saying that 23 accounts for North Korean organizations and individuals were opened in Vietnam, Thailand, Mongolia and Russia. The Japanese journalists were late with the information about Vietnam, however. In July U.S. Undersecretary Levey, who is responsible for financial intelligence and terrorism, traveled to Hanoi. A source familiar with the situation says that he was able to convince the Vietnamese to cooperate with him rather quickly. He hinted that otherwise Vietnam's accession to the WTO, planned for the end of this year, could be held up. Hanoi held a hasty investigation of its own, as a result of which all North Korean accounts were frozen. The asses of North Korean companies in the Macao branch of the People's Republic of China's largest bank, the Bank of China, were frozen the same month. Washington was involved in that action as well. Several sources say that the Americans were able to convince Beijing that the North Korean were not only laundering money in Macao, but counterfeiting Chinese yuan as well. After both Vietnam and its main ally China turned their backs on Pyongyang, the Americans began to look at Moscow with greater suspicion. Those suspicions most likely increased after the release of the report by the California-based Center for Nonproliferation Studies, which essentially accused Moscow of cooperating in the transfer of missile technology not only to North Korea, but to other pariah states as well. Pyongyang's Missiles The main claim of the American center's report is that North Korea has made significant progress in missile technology recently that “would not have been possible without outside assistance.” In the opinion of the Americans, Russians, working both in Russia and North Korea, are the main sources of that assistance. Moreover, according to the American researchers, North Korea changed its tactics for missile exports. Instead of delivering its missiles by sea, it has begun delivering them by air and disassembled, which makes them mush more difficult to trace. The report emphasizes that this too can be chocked up to the Russians. The report cites the involvement of private Russian companies, “which calls into question the ability and desire of the Russian government to control the distribution of North Korean missile technology,” the authors observe. The main recipients of that technology are indicated to be Iran, Syria and Pakistan. The Russian firms alleged to be collaborating with the North Korean regime are not mentioned. It s notable that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stated the day before the release of the report that he main danger posed by North Korea is that the country shares the technology it receives with “dubious regimes.” Rumsfeld assessed the recent trials of several ballistic missiles in North Korea as a demonstration of the nation's rocketry for potential buyers. The new American accusations against Russia form an almost ominous picture. Russian firms help North Korea develop missile technology, Pyongyang sells it to other problem countries, and the proceeds from those sales are deposited in North Korean accounts in Russian banks. It is only a small step form that picture to the accusation of violating nonproliferation rules. Russian experts are doubtful of the American claims. “Such accusations were not without grounds in Yeltsin's first and second terms and maybe Putin's first term,” director of the Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technology Ruslan Pukhov told Kommersant, “At the present time, there is no evidence of that practice.” The weak point in the accusations, Pukhov said, was the lack of any benefit to be derived by Russia either financially or geopolitically, or from the point of view of security, from the arrangement. Furthermore, Pukhov assured Kommersant, “working with the North Koreans in secret from the Russian authorities would be impossible.” The fact that the accusations are being made unofficially is no consolation for Moscow. In the past, unofficial accusations have preceded serious pressure from Washington. The same could happen this time as well. It is extremely important for the U.S. to gain Russia's compliance not only on North Korea, and even more so on Iran. Thursday is the deadline set by the UN Security Council for Iran to stop its nuclear development. Tehran's refusal to comply with the wishes of the world community (and practically no one doubts that Iran will refuse) will mean the imposition of international sanctions against it, which Moscow continues to oppose. It is possible that, if Russia becomes more agreeable about Iran, American pressure connected to North Korea will be softened. Or the other way around.
Poster Comment: NGO's, the "Russian" mafia, the US Jewish Lobby, oligarch newspapers -- and why the Bolsheviks are on the ropes under Putin...
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 4.
#1. To: Eoghan (#0)
Okay. Russia has nukes. U.S. has nukes. Russia is energy-independent and a net exporter. U.S. is not and consumes 25 percent of the gasoline on the planet each day, like the petrol version of a heroin addict. What pressure can the U.S. put on Russia? Who really won the Cold War?
For the most part, I think the Cold War was mostly a scam, it only integrated us into the Soviet system. So in that sense, the USSR won (and the aboved mentioned groups?)
Years ago Kruschev boasted to the US that they would get us from inside.
Have someone in the White House didn't he say? And within a couple generations? "The proletariat is the undertaker of capitalism." "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you" USSR won WWII too, according to the world map.
#9. To: robin (#4)
Isn't the neo-Bolshevik cliche repeated often, "You're on the wrong side of history."?
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