North Korea has diverted tens of millions of US dollars earned by its workers on African construction projects into secret funds managed by leader Kim Jong-il, a report said yesterday.
The impoverished country has earned more than US$160 million since early 2000 in orders from African countries for sculptures and other edifices, said Daily NK, a Seoul-based online newspaper run by defectors.
It said the money has been managed by the communist party’s Department 39, which raises personal funds for Kim by controlling key state corporations and financial institutions.
“Some of these dollars are used for domestic governance while the others go to secret accounts in Switzerland or Macau as Kim Jong-il’s secret funds,” it quoted a source in China as saying.
The projects in Africa were controlled by the Mansudae Art Institution, which builds sculptures and statues at home to idolize Kim and his family, Daily NK said.
The North earned US$66.03 million from Namibia and about US$54.5 million from Angola, it said, in addition to projects in other nations. These include an African Renaissance statue in Senegal with a construction budget estimated at more than 15 million euros (US$22 million).
Analysts say Kim’s personal funds have been dwindling because of economic difficulties and tightened international sanctions.
Meanwhile, an international relief group yesterday called for humanitarian aid to North Koreans to be continued despite current tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship.
Caritas Internationalis, a Catholic aid organization operating in North Korea since 1995, expressed concern about the cross-border tensions, saying they should be eased through dialogue.
Punishing any regime by discontinuing humanitarian aid does not work, Lesley-Anne Knight, the organization’s secretary-general, told a press conference.
“I don’t think it helps in any way to stop aid .... I would still say humanitarian aid to the people of North Korea must continue at all costs,” she said.
Knight, who came to Seoul for two days of talks with relief agencies operating in the North, said the continuation of aid would “help dampen the tensions” between the two Koreas.
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