Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Monday 6 March 2017

UN report shows North Korea using Africa to slip sanctions

CARA ANNA radio communications year, the U.N. report says. A year ago, the United received automatic pistols
Associated Press items. It was the second “African enforcement States led an effort to im- and other small arms from
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — time military-related items tends to be lax,” Marcus pose the toughest U.N. North Korea that were is-
North Korean weapons had been caught being Noland, an expert on North sanctions in two decades sued to the Central African
barred by U.N. sanctions exported from North Korea Korea at the Petersen Insti- against North Korea after nation’s presidential guard
ended up in the hands of to Eritrea “and confirms on- tute for International Eco- the country’s latest nucle- and special units of the na-
U.N. peacekeepers in Af- going arms-related coop- nomics, wrote last month, ar test and rocket launch. tional police.
rica, a confidential report eration between the two adding that “North Korea African nations then were Some of those national po-
says. That incident and countries.” Eritrea is also un- may deliberately target Af- pressured to cut ties with lice units were deployed
others in more than a half- der U.N. sanctions for sup- rican countries as a circum- Pyongyang, with South Ko- in the U.N. peacekeep-
dozen African nations show porting armed groups in vention strategy.” He said rean President Park Geun- ing mission in neighboring
how North Korea, despite Central African Republic,
facing its toughest sanc- the report says. Neither the
tions in decades, contin- U.N. peacekeeping office
ues to avoid them on the nor Congo’s government
world’s most impoverished responded to requests
continent with few reper- for comment on how the
cussions. North Korean weapons,
The annual report by a U.N. part of a series of shipments
panel of experts on North to Congo that included
Korea, obtained by The assault rifles and anti-tank
Associated Press, illustrates mines, made their way into
how Pyongyang evades the peacekeeping mission.
sanctions imposed for its In neighboring Angola, of-
nuclear and ballistic mis- ficials in September con-
sile programs to cooperate firmed to the visiting U.N.
“on a large scale,” includ- panel of experts that North
ing military training and Koreans continued to train
construction, in countries members of the presiden-
from Angola to Uganda. tial guard in martial arts, re-
Among the findings was spite a warning that it was
the “largest seizure of am- a violation of sanctions.
munition in the history of And in Uganda, seen as
sanctions” against North a regional security ally for
Korea, with 30,000 rocket- In this 2014 photo, North Korea’s ceremonial leader Kim Yong Nam, foreground-left, the head of the United States, North
North Korea’s parliament, is escorted into Uganda’s parliament by its Speaker Rebecca Kada-
propelled grenades found ga, center, Commissioner Rosemary Seninde, center-right, and Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minis- Korea’s military has been
hidden under iron ore that ter Asuman Kiyingi, right, in Kampala, Uganda. North Korean weapons barred by U.N. sanctions training Ugandan air force
was destined for Egypt in ended up in the hands of U.N. peacekeepers in Africa, a confidential report says. pilots and technicians un-
a cargo vessel heading (AP Photo) der a contract set to expire
toward the Suez Canal. in March 2018. Uganda
The intended destination the Horn of Africa. North Korea’s long military hye making a three-nation has been warned that vio-
of the North Korean-made Discovering such evasions involvement in Africa, and African tour to press for its lates sanctions, the U.N.
grenades, seized in August, is challenging because Af- its growing interest in trade isolation. report says.A spokesman
was not clear. rica has the world’s lowest there to reduce its deep But North Korea continues for Uganda’s military, Brig.
A month before that, the rate of reporting on moni- dependence on China, to train and equip some Richard Karemire, neither
report says, a U.N. member toring U.N. sanctions on “bring the continent’s re- African militaries, the new denied nor confirmed that
state seized an air shipment North Korea. Just 11 of its 54 lationship with North Korea U.N. report says. the North Korean training
destined for a company in countries turned in reports into increasing conflict with In the most striking exam- continues and would not
Eritrea containing military to the panel of experts last tightening U.N. sanctions.” ple, Congo’s government comment. q