North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un continues to fan World War 3 fears as the rogue regime dodges UN sanctions to fuel their nuclear programme.
A CNN investigation caught North Korea’s latest attempt to avoid sanctions by using fishing business and front firms, catching North Korean fisherman red handed on boats in Maputo, Mozambique.
US officials have long said that money from these businesses goes straight to Kim Jong Un’s nuclear missile programme.
UN and US investigators are looking closer at at least 11 African countries’ relationship to North Korea.
Speaking to CNN, Hugh Griffiths, chief investigator of the UN Panel of Experts, listed a number of military activities between the countries, all of which have been banned under sanctions since 2006.
He said: ”Air missiles, manned portable surface-to-air missiles, military radar, air defense systems, the refurbishment of tanks — it’s a long list.”
“The foreign currency generated and the revenues generated from all of this conventional military activity can be used to fund the DPRK — that’s North Korea’s — prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programs.”
Documents reviewed by CNN show that the cooperation is sealed with illegal contracts worth millions of dollars with the money being funneled through regionally based North Korean diplomats to Pyongyang, 7,500 miles away.
The UN revealed its investigation into military links between Mozambique and North Korea in a 2017 report, but cooperation between the two countries is more substantial than earlier thought.
The panel produces biannual reports to reveal alleged sanctions violators. They previously reported alleged North Korean military links to Mozambique worth at least $6 million with a front company called Haegeumgang being used to run the operation.
Officials at Mozambique’s ministry of defense declined to speak with CNN and didn’t respond to specific queries on military ties.
CNN gained access to official communications between the Mozambican military leadership and North Korean representatives. In 2015, Mozambican officials invited North Korean military technicians to the country, the documents show.
North Korea earned nearly $200m (£141m) last year by exporting banned commodities in breach of international sanctions, a UN report says.
The confidential report by a panel of experts, seven by news agencies, said several countries including China, Russia and Malaysia had failed to stop the illegal exports.