NEW YORK: The UN Panel of Experts, the enforcement organization of the United Nations (UN) sanctions on North Korea, ended its term of duty on April 30, 2024. It is due to a veto cast by Russia, one of the five permanent members – the United States, China, France, Russia, and the UK – of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), on the term extension of the UN Panel of Experts.
The UN Panel of Experts has been in operation since 2009 in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution to set up a special body for keeping Pyongyang under UNSC sanctions. One of the main missions of the UN Panel of Experts was to pressure North Korea to stop the development of all nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Before the official end of its duties, the UN Panel of Experts released a ‘final report’ that North Korea violated UN sanctions 112 times in the last 12 months. Among them, the report introduced a North Korean national named Nam Chol Ung, who is responsible for running underground businesses abroad.
According to the UN panel report, Nam Chol Ung is an officer of the Central Spy Agency, named Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), one of the main intelligence agencies in North Korea.
The Reconnaissance General Bureau is a highly important agency among several intelligence agencies in North Korea. The agency conducts underground businesses as a ‘key engine’ to maintain the power of the current supreme leader Kim Jong Un and his family. There is also ‘evidence linkage’ that the agency is related to the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Un’s half-brother, in Malaysia in 2017.
Some of the content in the final report of the UN Panel of Experts provides more information regarding the RGB’s business operations abroad. All business operations that Nam Chol Ung has conducted abroad are illegal in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 2270. Nam Chol Ung has expanded his underground businesses in several countries.
In order to evade UN Security Council sanctions and inspections by other government agencies, Nam Chol Ung has run offices in Laos and Thailand. These offices were mostly registered in the name of a third-country national.
North Korean nationals are not allowed to work abroad due to concerns of the global community that the revenues generated by overseas workers will be directly sent to the North Korean regime. This means that the revenue will never fall into the hands of North Korean citizens.
Nam Chol Ung used fake documents to hold trade endeavours. The objective was to smuggle goods and raw materials into North Korea, especially fuel and raw materials required for the regime’s weapons development programs. Also, Nam Chol Ung has smuggled a range of luxury goods to support the luxurious lifestyle of the Kim family and the ruling class in North Korea, contrary to the harsh living conditions of the population, which still suffers from extreme poverty. The report also stated that Nam Chol Ung smuggled oil through one company from Thailand in May 2023.
All of Nam Chol Ung’s underground businesses are illegal both abroad and at home, and there is a high risk of arrest at any time. However, he is willing to do such activities that are violating sanctions because of the Kim family’s reward of allowing him to live an elite lifestyle in North Korea society.
The most interesting part is the son of Nam’s family. Nam Chol Ung’s son has work experience at a United Nations organization as an intern. And now, he is making efforts to get full-time employment at a UN organization.
No matter how intelligent and talented Nam’s son may be, if the UN hires him, it will have to explain the ‘appropriateness’ of hiring a person related to the illegal activities of the North Korean regime, especially when the UN has continued to stress the need to put the Pyongyang under utmost pressure.
The report does not specifically focus on Nam Chol Ung but explains the Reconnaissance General Bureau’s methods of conducting underground businesses abroad by deploying agents like Nam Chol Ung. Therefore, the Panel of Experts recommended designating Nam Chol Ung and Lazarus for sanctions.
Nam Chol Ung has already left Thailand. However, when the UN Panel of Experts discloses information about Nam and other affiliated persons’ illegal activities carried out in several countries around the world, this report should serve as a case study and send a serious warning to the concerned authorities of each country about whether to allow Nam Chol Ung to enter the country and how the international community should take action against him.
