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Category: Proliferation

December 4, 2009

Axis, Schmaxis, Part 11: Iran Equipping Terrorists With North Korean Weapons

This Washington Post article, in addition to being an interesting and entertaining read, confirms my immediate suspicions about that shipment of North Korean arms recently interdicted in the Persian Gulf: Inspectors from the United Arab Emirates quickly swarmed the ship and uncovered a truck-size container packed with small arms made in North Korea. Concealed deeper in the ship was the real find: hundreds of crates containing military hardware and a grayish, foul-smelling powder, explosive components for thousands of short-range rockets....
Categories Axis of Evil/Iran/Proliferation/Terrorism (NK)/Terrorism/Iraq/Uncategorized
November 20, 2009

Der Spiegel on the Al Kibar Strike (or Axis, Schmaxis, Part 10)

Der Spiegel has printed a very extensive story on the Syrian nuclear reactor at Al-Kibar, the Israeli air strike that destroyed it, and the aftermath. I haven’t had time to get through the whole thing, but one thing I can say is how much more soundly I sleep knowing that all that “axis of evil” nonsense is finally behind us: According to information SPIEGEL has obtained from sources in Damascus, Assad has been considering taking a sensational political step. He...
Categories Axis of Evil/Proliferation/WMD
November 17, 2009

It’s time for another installment of the KCNA drinking game!

I do not think that word means what you think it means. Citing facts to prove that from a historical point of view the imperialists look down upon those countries with weak military power, force them to meet their unilateral and brigandish demands and consider them as targets of their armed intervention and aggression, the article goes on: [KCNA, Nov. 9. 2009] Take a drink! If a country, though small, increases defence capability, attaching importance to military affairs, the imperialists...
Categories Propaganda/Unintended Humor/WMD
November 16, 2009

Phillip Goldberg Quits as N. Korea Sanctions Coordinator

Goldberg had been highly effective in his post, and his departure is a very, very worrying sign about the direction of the administration’s policy: A diplomatic source in Washington said Sunday Goldberg has been appointed as assistant secretary of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department. Voice of America reported that the White House informed the Senate of Goldberg’s new post last month, and a confirmation hearing will take place Thursday. South Korean and U.S. government officials...
Categories Money Laundering/Proliferation/Sanctions
November 2, 2009

Yongbyon Reprocessing Plant “Restored to Its Earlier Conditions”

Who remembers the heyday of Agreed Framework II, when the foreign policy establishment united to educate the hoi polloi about all of the great unfolding achievements of diplomacy with the North Koreans? They told us that North Korea was removing fuel rods and dismantling in earnest.  Siegfried Hecker went to Yongbyon and returned to report, with a few qualifications, that “the DPRK leadership has made the decision to permanently shut down plutonium production” and that “the disablement actions taken to...
Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/WMD
October 28, 2009

Treasury Knocks Over Yet Another North Korean Bank

Phillip Goldberg and Stuart Levey have done more to advance U.S. interests in five months than the entire East Asia Bureau of our State Department has done in two decades: Treasury said in a statement that Amroggang Development Bank was being added to a list of proliferators of mass destruction because it was owned or controlled by North Korea’s Tanchon Commercial Bank. Tanchon was previously hit with sanctions by both the United States and the United Nations Security Council for...
Categories Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD
October 9, 2009

N. Korean Containers Seized in S. Korea Contained Hazmat Suits Bound for Syria

Reports from unnamed government sources in the capital have stated that the four containers impounded in the port of Busan, and reported in the Handy Shipping Guide story recently, contained clothing “to guard against nuclear, biological or chemical infection. Syria was also pronounced as the intended destination and the goods were declared as either of Russian manufacture or copied from Russian original designs, probably by North Korea, where the items apparently originated. [Handy Shipping Guide] And to think we only...
Categories Proliferation/WMD
September 14, 2009

Another Nuke Test?

On Saturday, I had coffee with a very well-connected South Korean friend, who suggested in passing that North Korea might respond to this-or-that sanction with another nuke test. After having expostulated for the next 45 seconds about why such a move wouldn’t further North Korea’s interests at this time, I think I now understand why my friend just sat there and smiled while I yammered on: According to a high-level source in North Korea, Kim Jong-Il instructed at the meeting...
Categories Proliferation/WMD
September 9, 2009

U.S. Sanctions More N. Korean Entities

The U.S. Department of State today designated under Executive Order 13382 the General Bureau of Atomic Energy (GBAE) and Korea Tangun Trading Corporation. Both entities were designated by the United Nations on July 16, 2009, for their involvement in North Korea’s WMD and missile programs. GBAE oversees the DPRK nuclear program and manages operations at the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center. Korea Tangun Trading Corporation is subordinate to North Korea’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences and is primarily responsible for the...
Categories Proliferation/Sanctions
September 4, 2009

North Korea’s Uranium Enrichment: Raising the Stakes

Umm, about that North Korean uranium enrichment program the Bush Administration made up …. North Korea said Friday that it is in the final stages of enriching uranium, a process that could give the nation a second way to make nuclear bombs in addition to its known plutonium-based program. North Korea informed the U.N. Security Council it is forging ahead with its nuclear programs in spite of international calls to abandon its atomic ambitions, the official Korean Central News Agency...
Categories Proliferation/Propaganda/Subversion/WMD
September 1, 2009

Commentary on the UAE Weapons Seizure

The shipment of RPG’s and detonators to Iran being akin to shipping snow to South Dakota in February, I continue to be curious about the ultimate destination for those weapons. Like GI Korea, I think it makes sense that Iran might have been using North Korea as a plausibly deniable source for weapons it planned to give to Shiite militias in Iraq, or to al Qaeda. Iran, after all, is a major manufacturer of antitank missiles, including RPG’s, in its...
Categories Axis of Evil/Iran/Terrorism (NK)/Terrorism/Iraq
August 28, 2009

UAE Intercepts N. Korean Arms Ship

[The ANL Australia, photo from here] The ship was on its way to Iran, carrying weapons whose trade is embargoed by UNSCR 1874: Diplomats at the UN identified the vessel as the Bahamian-flagged ANL-Australia. The vessel was seized some weeks ago. The UN sanctions committee has written to the Iranian and North Korean governments pointing out that the shipment puts them in violation of UN resolution 1974. [Financial Times, Simeon Kerr and Harvey Morris] Because they probably had no idea....
Categories "United" Nations/Axis of Evil/Iran/Proliferation/Sanctions
August 25, 2009

We Have Lift-Off

I didn’t think President Lee would actually go through with this. Although I’m not sure this launch is a wise move in the broader context of attempts to disarm the North Koreans — who will seize on this to justify their own banned program — it’s almost gratifying to see a South Korean president so unconcerned about what North Korea says. And while I reject most of the comparisons to the North Korean Taepodong II launch last spring, both launches...
Categories Missiles
August 19, 2009

Is This Really The Time or the Place to Launch Rockets?

For a variety of reasons, apparently not. Look, I’m the last person on Earth to subscribe to the morally equivalent view of the Koreas as a north-going zax and a south-going zax. South Korean leaders don’t profit politically from international extortion and provocations — well, OK, there is this — but objectively, the world isn’t threatened by South Korea launching satellites or making advances in the nuclear fuel cycle, something President Lee’s people have personally told me they’re keen to...
Categories Missiles/Proliferation/South Korea/WMD
August 11, 2009

North Korean Ship Boarded in Indian Waters Not Carrying Banned Cargo

That North Korean ship that was boarded, searched, and investigated after being caught lurking suspiciously in Indian waters turns out to have been carrying “genuine” cargo after all.  As we all eagerly anticipate John Feffer and Christine Ahn’s outcry that the ship’s captain was unfairly profiled for “boating while North Korean,” the rest of us can only shake our heads and wonder why the ship was behaving so suspiciously: A day after a North Korean ship was detained at Port...
Categories Proliferation/Sanctions
August 9, 2009

Hey, Over There! Isn’t that a North Korean WMD Smugging Ship?

Some ferry passengers off the Andaman Islands probably never figured they’d be signing up to join the Proliferation Security Initiative when they bought their passage: The sources said the observant passengers were on their way from Port Blair to Hut Bay on a ferry called “˜”˜M V Hut Bay”. They first noticed the ship about 7 km from Hut Bay, the entry point for the Little Andaman islands, in a highly isolated stretch of the sea. One of the passengers...
Categories Proliferation/Sanctions
August 5, 2009

Yesterday Syria, Today Burma, Tomorrow Al Qaeda

The “experts” told us that North Korea would have no reason to threaten us if we’d only “engage,” talk, and appease them.  We did, and they sold Syria a nuclear reactor anyway.  Others say we should just ignore them.  We did, and they’re selling Burma a uranium enrichment program: The two defectors whose briefings have created such alarm are both regarded as credible sources. One was an officer with a secret nuclear battalion in the Burmese army who was sent...
Categories Proliferation/Southeast Asia