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.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS