The Times (Irish editon), January 21st 2024
Kim dodges sanctions to gain nuclear weapons tool
North Korea
Richard Lloyd Parray Asia Editor
North Korea obtained a key tool used in the production of nuclear warheads by shipping it through three separate countries in an elaborate ploy to dodge international sanctions on its weapons programme.
According to a US think tank, the authorities in Mexico, South Africa and China failed to spot false documentation for a vacuum furnace, which can be used in creating fuel for nuclear warheads. The case demonstrates the increasing difficulties of enforcing international sanctions against North Korea.
The report by the Institute for Science and International Security cites unnamed government sources to describe an incident in 2022, when the vacuum furnace was shipped from Spain with an accurate description of its function.
Such equipment is designated "dual use" under UN sanctions, meaning that while it has legitimate civilian uses, it also has an important function in Kim Jong-un's nuclear weapons program and is banned for export to North Korea.
"This type of furnace is a mainstay of a nuclear-weapons program, particularly one that uses weapon-grade uranium as the nuclear explosive material, as North Korea is known to do," David Albright, a physicist and former weapons inspector, said in the report. "With North Korea expanding its uranium-enrichment program and producing greater quantities of weapon-grade uranium, this new furnace would be especially important."
The shipment arrived in Mexico, where it was given a new code under the "harmonised system" used internationally to label traded items. Listed under the general term "machinery", it was then shipped to South Africa where it was redesignated as scrap metal and sent to China, from where it passed to North Korea.
Although Beijing agreed to sanctions against North Korea passed by the UN security council, it has become lenient about enforcing them as relations with the West have deteriorated.
The think tank called for "additional scrutiny" for such exports to China.
The report comes as the governments of the US, Japan and South Korea said North Korean hackers had stolen more than $600 million in cryptocurrency in 2023, which could fund its nuclear programme.
In a joint statement last week, the countries said that Pyongyang's cyber programmes posed a threat "to the international community" and "the intergrity and stability of the international financial system".
They added: "The three governments are working together to prevent North Korea's theft of private sector and others and to recover the stolen funds, with the ultimate goal of blocking the illicit proceeds used for North Korea's illicit WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and ballistic-missile programmes."
The governments also warned of the threat of North Korean IT workers impersonating Japanese citizens to get remote work in overseas companies, with their income channelled to the regime. In 2023, the UN estimated as many as 10,000 North Korean IT experts worked overseas.
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