It is in Kuala Lumpur’s “Little India” neighborhood, behind an unmarked door on the second floor of a rundown building, where a military equipment company called Glocom says it has its office.
Glocom is a front company run by North Korean intelligence agents that sells battlefield radio equipment in violation of UN sanctions, according to a report drafted for the UN Security Council.
Glocom had advertised more than 30 radio systems for “military and paramilitary” organizations on its Malaysian Web site, www.glocom.com.my.
The site, which was taken down late last year, listed the Little India address in its contacts section.
No one answers the door there and the mailbox outside is stuffed with unopened letters.
No company by that name exists in Malaysia, but two Malaysian companies controlled by North Korean shareholders and directors registered Glocom’s Web site in 2009, according to the Web site and company registration documents.
However, it does have a business, the report says.
In July last year, an air shipment of North Korean military communications equipment, sent from China and bound for Eritrea, was intercepted in an unnamed country. The seized equipment included 45 boxes of battlefield radios and accessories labeled “Glocom,” short for Global Communications Co.
Glocom is controlled by the the North Korean Reconnaissance General Bureau, its intelligence agency tasked with overseas operations and weapons procurement, the report says, citing undisclosed information it obtained.
A spokesperson for North Korea’s mission at the UN said he had no information about Glocom.
UN Security Council Resolution 1874, adopted in 2009, expanded the arms embargo against North Korea to include military equipment and all “related materiel.”
However, implementation of the sanctions “remains insufficient and highly inconsistent” among member countries, the report says, and North Korea is using “evasion techniques that are increasing in scale, scope and sophistication.”
Malaysia is one of the world’s few countries that has strong ties with North Korea, but those ties have begun to sour after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s estranged half-brother was murdered at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13.
According to the Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers’ WHOIS database, which discloses Web site ownership, glocom.com.my was registered in 2009 by an entity called International Global System using the Little India address.
A similarly named company, International Golden Services, is listed as the contact point on Glocom’s Web site.
Glocom is operated by the Pyongyang branch of a Singapore-based company called Pan Systems, the report says.
Pan Systems Singapore managing director Louis Low said his company used to have an office in Pyongyang from 1996, but officially ended relations with North Korea in 2010 and was no longer in control of any business there.
“They use [the] Pan Systems [name] and say it’s a foreign company, but they operate everything by themselves,” Low said, referring to the North Koreans at the Pyongyang office.
Pan Systems Pyongyang utilized bank accounts, front companies and agents mostly based in China and Malaysia to buy components and sell completed radio systems, the UN report says.
Pan Systems Pyongyang could not be reached for comment.
Ryang Su-nyo is a director of Pan Systems Pyongyang.
According to a source with direct knowledge of her background, Ryang reports to “Liaison Office 519,” a department in the Reconnaissance General Bureau. Ryang is also listed as a shareholder of International Global System, the company that registered Glocom’s Web site.
Ryang frequently traveled to Singapore and Malaysia to meet with Pan Systems representatives, the draft UN report says.
On one such trip in February 2014, she and two other North Koreans were detained in Malaysia for attempting to smuggle US$450,000 through customs at Kuala Lumpur’s budget airport terminal, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said.
The trio told Malaysian authorities they all worked for Pan Systems and the cash belonged to the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the two sources said.
The Malaysian attorney general decided not to press charges because of insufficient evidence.
A week later, they were allowed to travel and the North Korean embassy claimed the cash, the sources said, adding that all three had passports assigned to government officials.
The Pan Systems representative in Kuala Lumpur is a North Korean by the name of Kim Chang-hyok, the UN report says.
Kim, who also goes by James Kim, was a founding director of International Golden Services, the company listed in the contacts section of the Glocom Web site. He is director and shareholder of four other companies in Malaysia operating in the IT and trade fields, according to the Malaysian company registry.
He did not respond to requests for comment by mail or e-mail.
The UN panel asked the Malaysian government if it would expel Kim Chang-hyok and freeze the assets of International Golden Services and International Global System to comply with UN sanctions. The UN did not say when it made the request.
“The panel has yet to receive an answer,” the report said.
Glocom advertises and exhibits its wares without disclosing its North Korean connections.
It has exhibited at least three times since 2006 at Malaysia’s biennial arms show, Defense Services Asia, according to its Web site.
At last year’s show, Glocom paid 2,000 ringgit (US$451) to share a table in the booth of Malaysia’s Integrated Securities Corp, its director Hassan Masri said via e-mail.
Hassan said he had nothing to do with Glocom’s equipment and was unaware of its alleged links to North Korea.
Aside from the North Koreans behind Glocom, clues on its Web site also point to its origins.
For instance, one undated photograph shows a factory worker testing a Glocom radio system. A plaque nearby shows he has won a uniquely North Korean award: “The Model Machine No. 26 Prize,” named in honor of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who is said to have efficiently operated “Lathe No. 26” at the Pyongyang Textile Factory when he was a student.
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