Italy foiled an attempt by North Korea to import tap-dancing shoes in breach of a UN ban on the sale of luxury goods to Pyongyang, according to a UN report on the enforcement of sanctions against the North.
The report said that many banned goods reached North Korea via an unnamed transshipment hub, which Western UN envoys speaking on condition of anonymity said was located in China. Although it has been leaked to the media, China has objected to the official publication of the UN expert panel’s report, Security Council diplomats said.
“In December 2010, a shipment of high-quality tap-dancing shoes was blocked at Orio al Serio Airport [Milan],” said the report by the so-called UN Panel of Experts, which monitors compliance with UN sanctions against North Korea.
A UN diplomat on Tuesday said that the seized shipment involved several dozen pairs of tap-dancing shoes. He said that it was not clear how the tap shoes might fit into North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s lavish lifestyle, which includes grandiose stage performances by North Korean performers.
Two rounds of UN sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests ban the sale of luxury items to Kim Jong-il’s government. Pyongyang was also hit with an arms embargo and is forbidden from trading in nuclear and missile technology.
Italy has seized other banned luxury items the leaders of North Korea unsuccessfully attempted to purchase in recent years, including high-quality cognac and whiskey worth 12,000 euros (US$17,250) and equipment for a 1,000-person cinema valued at 130,000 euros, the report said.
In December last year, an Austrian man was fined 3.3 million euros over the sale of luxury goods to North Korea, including yachts.
The UN panel’s report said Pyongyang has also attempted to skirt the embargo on luxury goods by purchasing a dozen Mercedes-Benz vehicles, high-end musical recording equipment, more than three dozen pianos and cosmetics. Some of the items were successfully shipped to North Korea, it said.
“Most of these luxury goods reached or would have reached [North] Korea after transiting through a neighboring transshipment hub,” the report said.
Diplomats said that the “transshipment hub” was in China. They said China has also been a transit hub for missile technology transfers between Iran and North Korea, as detailed in the same UN report.
TARGET PRACTICE
Meanwhile, South Korea will tell army training centers to stop using pictures of Kim Jong-il and his son as targets on rifle ranges, the -defense ministry said yesterday.
Several training centers for marines, ground troops and army reservists, including those in Gyeonggi Province surrounding Seoul, have been using the pictures as targets, a ministry spokesman said.
“The ministry will send a directive to the military to refrain from using such targets and to use standard targets,” the spokesman said.
Several local media outlets on Tuesday published pictures of targets depicting Kim Jong-il, his late father and founding president Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il’s youngest son and heir apparent Kim Jong-un.
A military official quoted by Chosun Ilbo newspaper said the practice was aimed at “boosting battle spirit” following the North’s bombardment of a border island in November last year that killed four South Koreans.
The ministry spokesman gave no reason for the decision to stop using the Kims as targets, but analysts said Seoul may be trying to avoid a further strain in already tense relations.
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