[USFK Forums] US Pressures on N. Korea Diversified [Korea Times]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Friday, March 31, 2006

US Pressures on N. Korea Diversified

The Korea Times, Friday, March 31, 2006
By Ryu Jink, Staff Reporter

With a multiparty forum to denuclearize North Korea stalled for months, the United States is increasing its pressure on the isolated Stalinist state, aside from the nuclear issue, by diversifying into such areas as financial and human rights problems.

In its latest action involving of a series of punitive steps targeting illicit activities by the Kim Jong-il regime, Washington designated a Swiss company on Thursday as supporting North Korea’s proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

As a punitive measure, the U.S. Treasury Department announced a freeze in U.S. territory of the assets of Kohas AG and its company president, Jakob Steiger, pursuant to an executive order issued June last year to combat the spread of WMDs.

An industrial wholesaler headquartered in Switzerland, Kohas AG was tied to (North) Korea Ryonbong General Corp., which is designated a WMD proliferator under the executive order, according to the U.S. department.

Officials said the company, whose ties with the North date to the firm’s founding in the late 1980s, acted as a technology broker in Europe for the North Korean military and has a record of procuring goods with weapons-related applications.

``North Korea’s efforts to build and sell weapons of mass destruction depend on a vast network, the reach of which extends beyond Asia,’’ Stuart Levey, the department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said.

Washington accuses Pyongyang of making and floating counterfeit U.S. dollars and of trafficking narcotics, which officials in the George W. Bush administration believe are used to sustain the poverty-stricken North Korean regime.

The U.S. took punitive action against a Macau bank last September, alleging it laundered money North Korea obtained through illicit activities. While denying forgery allegations, Pyongyang is refusing to attend a new round of six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program.

Meanwhile, Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. presidential envoy appointed to deal with North Korea’s human rights issues, raised concerns about the inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong, calling for an international inspection of its working conditions.

He warned against unrestricted and unmonitored aid to the communist country which he said would only help continue the dire conditions in North Korea. It is the first time the U.S. openly took issue with working conditions at the joint economic park.

In another rare move, the U.S. also expressed ``grave’’ concerns over Beijing’s recent repatriation of a North Korean refugee, which was regarded as a rather strong diplomatic message ahead of an upcoming visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao.

``The United States is gravely concerned about China’s treatment of Kim Chun-hee,’’ the White House said in a statement issued from Cancun, Mexico, where Bush is visiting.

It urged China not to return the refugees without allowing the U.N. High Commission for Refugees access to them.

Experts said the Bush administration seems to have shifted its North Korea policy from the previous approach of focusing on the nuclear issue first to the current one of trying to deal with various problems together.

Kyungnam University Prof. Kim Geun-shik said, when the previous approach was kind of a sequential policy starting from the resolution of security problems, including nuclear dismantlement, and moving to a normalization of U.S.-North Korea ties and then regime transformation, the current situation is like a picture where all the problems concerning the country, such as human rights issues, are coming to the surface at the same time.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr

03-31-2006 17:45

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