UN investigating claims of rampant North Korean wildlife trafficking in Africa
UN investigating claims of rampant North Korean wildlife trafficking in
Africa
Ifang Bremer, NK News
March 25, 2024
The U.N. Panel of Experts overseeing DPRK sanctions is investigating
allegations that North Korean officials engaged in multiple wildlife
trafficking schemes in Africa between 2022 and 2023, according to its
latest report.
The first case involves a North Korean diplomat in South Africa named Yun
Kil and was first reported by the website Pyongyang Papers, an anonymous
blog that publishes allegations of North Korean sanctions violations.
Pyongyang Papers alleged in March 2022 that Yun attempted to traffic $65
million worth of rhinoceros horns the same year, looking to sell the horns
to a Chinese company via a Mozambique broker.
Matthew Redhead, a financial crime researcher at the Royal United Services
Institute (RUSI) who has researched North Korean wildlife trafficking, told
NK News that $65 million worth of rhino horns suggests North Korea might be
upscaling its illegal wildlife trade.
“That sounds like a heck of a lot of horn, and certainly not an amount that
would be susceptible to transport in the diplomatic bag or personal
luggage, unless it was being smuggled out in small amounts,” he said. “This
makes me wonder whether what we’re seeing here is an effort to
‘industrialize’ their smuggling efforts, using channels more typically used
for their sanctions evasion efforts.”
The panel is also looking into a case raised by a local Botswana news
outlet about a DPRK-led ivory smuggling plot spanning four African
countries.
According to Weekend Post, a North Korean intelligence official named Yi
Kang Dae financed an operation to illegally transport rhino horns and
elephant tusks from Botswana on two separate occasions, in Nov. 2022 and
Feb. 2023.
After leaving Botswana, the illegal goods were allegedly smuggled into
South Africa and Zimbabwe before arriving in Mozambique, from where they
were subsequently shipped to an undisclosed third country.
The outlet reported the North Korean smugglers acted on behalf of Han Tae
Song, the DPRK’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva.
Japanese media reported in December that Han was set to return to Pyongyang
after Swiss authorities and the Panel of Experts investigated his alleged
involvement in wildlife trafficking. Han was reportedly previously expelled
from Zimbabwe in 1992 for engaging in rhino horn trafficking.
Reports of North Korean involvement in illegal wildlife trade have surfaced
for decades. Experts say DPRK diplomats based in southern African countries
have used the ivory trade as a means to gain illegal revenues for the
government, or to maintain their own missions in the absence of Pyongyang
funds.
Redhead of RUSI told NK News that “most of the sourcing of illegally traded
animals by North Korea has taken place historically in sub-Saharan African
countries.”
“Given many of these countries’ historic links with North Korea, gratitude
for past support, and a more permissive view about the international
wildlife trade, there has been a tendency for some local officials to turn
a blind eye to North Korean activities,” he said. “Local governments will
eventually complain about the most egregious examples of bad North Korean
behavior, but they haven’t made a systematic effort to stop it — so far.”
According to Redhead, illegal wildlife trade “is an easy way for North
Korea to make money at relatively low risk, and it has plenty of
experienced operatives in the field.”
“But of course, with the North Korean diplomatic presence declining, that
channel is going to become more difficult to use, and I suspect we will see
North Koreans operating undercover as third-party nationals (for example as
Chinese and Vietnamese) playing a greater role in sourcing and transporting
these items.”
North Korea has closed nine of its overseas missions since. Six of the
recently closed embassies were in African countries, underlining an effort
to reduce its diplomatic activity in the region by shuttering or
consolidating missions.
Historically, Pyongyang’s foreign missions have been a means for the DPRK
to illicitly gain foreign currency by abusing diplomatic immunity, ranging
from selling ivory to dealing in Cuban cigars.