Tag: North Korea

Arrest in North Korea Smuggling Case

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
A Chinese man who was arrested in Australia is awaiting extradition to the United States for allegedly selling counterfeit cigarettes in a North Korean scheme to generate revenue, according to Reuters.
“The individual is wanted to face prosecution in the United States for a number of sanctions, band fraud, money laundering and conspiracy offenses,” said a spokesperson for Australia’s Attorney-General’s Department. Jin Guanghua was arrested in Victoria and remains in custody.
According to an unsealed U.S. indictment, Jin, who is a Chinese citizen, allegedly committed bank fraud in an illegal scheme by North Korea to generate revenue through the purchase and sale of tobacco. The indictment stated that the North Korean banks used front companies to avoid U.N. sanctions.
According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jin was one of three Chinese nationals acting as middlemen to purchase tobacco for companies owned by the North Korean government and military. The tobacco, which was purchased from international suppliers and shipped to Dalian, China, before being smuggled to North Korea, was used to manufacture counterfeit cigarettes to generate hard currency.
Jin was involved between 2009 and 2019, according to the indictment, and remains in custody “pursuant to the United States of America’s request for his extradition to face criminal charges in the United States.” A warrant for his arrest was executed in August, according to a spokesperson from a Victorian magistrates court.
Globally, North Korea is one of the largest producers of contraband cigarettes.
February 27, 2024
‘BAT North Korea Trade Was Legal in Singapore’

Image: Andy
British American Tobacco’s Singaporean affiliate did not break local laws when it sold cigarette components to North Korea, despite receiving a multi-million dollar fine in the U.S. for flouting North Korean sanctions, reports The Straits Times.
In April, BAT and its indirect subsidiary in Singapore agreed to pay U.S. authorities $635.24 million plus interest to resolve investigations into suspicions of sanctions breaches concerning business activities relating to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea between 2007 and 2017.
North Korea is subject to sanctions by the United Nations and individual countries for developing nuclear weapons, money laundering and human rights violations, among other activities.
According to the Straits Times, Singapore authorities became aware in 2018 that BAT Marketing Singapore was involved in selling cigarette components to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), but stopped sales since June 2017—five months before Singapore implemented the UN sanctions.
The authorities concluded that the company did not breach Singapore’s UN regulations. “The trade of cigarette components with the DPRK was not prohibited under our laws at that time,” the city’s police were quoted as saying by the Straits Times.
Today, trade sanctions against North Korea make it a crime for anyone in Singapore, as well as Singapore citizens based overseas, to supply, sell or transfer designated export items to anyone in North Korea, whether directly or indirectly.
Those found guilty of doing so can be fined up to SGD100,000 ($75,473) or three times the value of the goods that were dealt with, whichever is greater. They can also be jailed for up to two years or both.
May 8, 2023
BAT Settles Investigation

Image: alexlmx
BAT has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to resolve investigations into suspicions of sanctions breaches concerning business activities relating to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea between 2007 and 2017.
BAT has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ and a civil settlement agreement with the OFAC, and an indirect BAT subsidiary in Singapore has entered into a plea agreement with the DOJ. The total amount payable to the U.S. authorities is $635.24 million plus interest.
Under the agreement, BAT cannot comment on the documentation published by the investigating authorities or on related factual matters.
As announced in its half-year report of 27 July 2022, BAT recognized a provision of £450 million ($540 million) in line with the International Accounting Standards 37 requirements. its full year 2023 group guidance is unaffected by this announcement.
“On behalf of BAT, we deeply regret the misconduct arising from historical business activities that led to these settlements and acknowledge that we fell short of the highest standards rightly expected of us,” said BAT CEO Jack Bowles in a statement.”
“Adhering to rigorous compliance and ethics standards has been, and remains, a top priority for BAT. In recent years, we have transformed our compliance and ethics program, which encompasses sanctions, anti-bribery, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering. The significant steps already taken, as well as the continued refinements to the program that will be made as part of these settlements, will leave us even better equipped to lead a responsible and sustainable business.”
April 26, 2023
North Korea Bans Public Smoking

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly on Nov. 4 implemented anti-tobacco legislation that includes a ban on public smoking, reports the Korean Central News Agency.
In addition to prohibiting smoking in political and ideological education centers, theatres and cinemas, and medical and public health facilities, the legislation will also reportedly tighten the legal and social controls on the production and sale of cigarettes.
More than 46 percent of adult men in North Korea were smokers in 2017, according to the World Health Organization. But defectors from the country said that the percentage could be much higher as men take to smoking in their teens as a source of entertainment in a place with few alternatives. North Korea claims that no women smoke.
A common joke among North Korean men, according to defectors, is that it is possible to go “one day without eating but no days without smoking,” according to The New York Times. Packs of cigarettes are used to bribe North Korean officials, they say.
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is known as a keen smoker. On North Korean state media, Kim can often be seen taking a drag of his cigarette while inspecting factories, talking with missile engineers, riding the subway and even visiting schools and children’s hospitals.
November 6, 2020
Essentra Settles Case Over North Korea Trade

Photo: Essentra
Essentra FZE Co., a subsidiary of Essentra PLC incorporated in the United Arab Emirates, has agreed to pay a $665,112 fine and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and defrauding the United States in connection with evading sanctions on North Korea, according to a DOJ news announcement.
The public filing against Essentra FZE is the first-ever Department of Justice corporate enforcement action for violations of these regulations. Essentra FZE has also entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
“This is an important case as it demonstrates the FBI will not hesitate to hold businesses accountable for violating sanctions involving North Korea,” said Alan E. Kohler Jr, assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. “We will aggressively go after enterprises using front companies, false documents, or other illegal methods to evade sanctions. We want North Korea and private industry to know that efforts to dodge our laws will never be tolerated as business as usual.”
According to admissions and court documents, beginning in at least October 2017 and continuing until at least December 2018, Essentra FZE deceived banks in the U.S. and in the UAE into processing transactions for a North Korean tobacco company. Essentra FZE and its co-conspirators utilized financial cutouts and front companies to conceal the North Korean nexus, as well as falsified shipping records, according to the DOJ.
In a statement published on its website, Essentra PLC said none of the transactions were approved or known by senior management outside of the UAE and both employees have since been exited from the business.
“A very thorough and in-depth investigation has been carried out to fully understand the root cause of the issues we have seen,” said Paul Forman, CEO of Essentra PLC. “We have made a very significant investment of both time and money, which has now equipped us with enhanced protection against any potential future issues of this nature.”
July 17, 2020
Tobacco dominates trade
Trade between North Korea and Mongolia rose 43 percent year-on-year to US$2.3 million in 2017, primarily driven by tobacco imports from Mongolia, according to a KBS story relayed by the TMA and citing figures published by the Ulaanbaatar chapter of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.
Mongolia’s exports to North Korea grew 55 percent to US$1.9 million, while imports from North Korea rose two percent to US$370,000.
The agency said Mongolia’s number one export item to North Korea was tobacco, which accounted for 92 percent of overall exports to the country by value.
January 9, 2018
Propaganda or advert?
A former resident of Pyongyang, North Korea, is hoping that her sizable Korean poster collection can present a more nuanced picture of art in the reclusive state, according to a CNN report, What North Korea propaganda posters reveal.
Stanford fellow Katharina Zellweger, who lived in Pyongyang for five years while working for a Swiss government agency, collected more than 100 examples from inside the country.
Most of the images are said to promote agriculture and science, ‘offering an alternative to the violent scenes typically associated with North Korean propaganda’.
The posters, which encourage hard work and solidarity, are reinforced with depictions of smiling model citizens and images celebrating national achievements.
North Korea has produced too a number of anti-smoking posters, having joined the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005.
The WHO is said to have reported that the country ‘keenly celebrates’ World No Tobacco Day every year.
Twenty-five of the posters are on display at the University Museum and Art Gallery in Hong Kong.
January 2, 2018
Plain-talking packaging
Photo by (stephan)
Production in North Korea of a popular brand of cigarettes has been suspended on the orders of the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, according to a story in The Daily NK.
The brand in question is ‘Kumsugangsan’, which in Korean means ‘land of natural beauty’.
The Daily NK reported that a source in Pyongyang had told it that, during a meeting to promote the production of domestic goods, Kim Jong Un had said that the name of the cigarettes, which were produced in collaboration with China, did not accurately reflect the “real state” of North Korea.
“Soon afterwards, the cigarette was no longer produced and was replaced with the ‘Pyongyang’ brand cigarette,” the source said.
Each cigarette factory in North Korea produces their products according to an annual tobacco production target.
But the factory manufacturing Kumsugangsan was forced to produce Pyongyang instead despite the production targets.
To maintain profit levels at the factory, Pyongyang is retailing at, 4,000 KPW, on a par with the price of Kumsugangsan.
Kim Jong Un reportedly told cadres at a gathering that Kumsugangsan conjured an image of verdant land and pristine waters, which was not in line with the reality of the country.
The source said that this was a criticism of the country’s extensive deforestation and its insufficient protection or maintenance of waterways.
March 7, 2017