A new UN report suggests that North Korea has been using front companies to export nuclear and missile technology and has helped Iran, Syria and Myanmar, a Western diplomat said.
The findings were detailed in a report by UN experts charged with monitoring compliance with Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang, the diplomat said late on Thursday on condition of anonymity.
“The details in the report are not entirely surprising,” the diplomat said. “Basically it suggests that North Korea has exported nuclear and missile technology with the aid of front companies, middlemen and other ruses.”
“The point is that North Korea has been providing that kind of aid to Iran, Syria and Burma [Myanmar],” he said.
The diplomat said the evidence was preliminary and would need further investigation.
Western intelligence officials and diplomats have long suspected North Korea was providing banned technology to Iran, which the US and its allies suspect is developing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy program.
Tehran denies the charges and insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity.
Western spy agencies also have suspected that Myanmar was interested in acquiring nuclear technology from North Korea.
In 2007, Israel bombed what Western officials said was a Syrian nuclear reactor based on a North Korean design. Syria also denies being involved in clandestine nuclear activity.
Meanwhile, talks on shoring up the Non-Proliferation Treaty were on the brink of failure yesterday as the US and its allies clashed with Egypt over a push to pressure Israel to scrap any atom bombs it has. The 189 signatories of the treaty have been meeting in New York for a month.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique