The Un Panel of Experts, the enforcement organization of the United Nations (UN) sanctions on the DPRK, ended its term of duty on April 30, 2024.
It is due to a veto cast by Russia, one of the P5 members 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 UNSC 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 the DPRK to stop the development of all nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Before the official end of its duties, the Panel of Experts released a “final report” that the DPRK violated UN sanctions 112 times in the last 12 months.
Among them, the report introduced a DPRK national named Nam Chol Ung, who is responsible for running underground businesses abroad. According to the report, Nam Chol Ung is officer of the Central Spy Agency, named Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), one of the main intelligence agencies in the DPRK, with a key position as the chief of RGB stations in China and Southeast Asia.
The RGB is a highly important agency among several intelligence agencies in the DPRK. The RGB 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 RGB 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 provides more information about the RGB’s business operations abroad. All business operations that Nam Chol Ung has conducted overseas is clearly illegal in accordance with UNSC resolution 2270. Nam Chol Ung has carried out his underground businesses in many countries of Southeast Asia, one of which is Thailand.
In order to evade UNSC sanctions and inspections by other government agencies, Nam Chol Ung has run offices in Thailand and Laos. These offices were usually registered in the name of a third country national. DPRK nationals are not allowed to work abroad due to concerns of the international community that those revenues generated by NK overseas workers will be directly sent to the DPRK regime.
This means that the revenue will never fall into the hands of the DPRK citizens. Nam Chol Ung used fake documents to engage in trade. The objective was to smuggle goods and raw materials into the DPRK, especially fuel and raw materials required for the regime’s weapons development programs.
Also, he has smuggled a variety of luxury goods to support the luxurious lifestyle of the Kim family and the ruling class in the DPRK, contrary to the harsh living conditions of the populace, which still suffer from poverty.
The report also mentioned that Nam Chol Ung smuggled oil through one company from Thailand in May 2023. All of Nam Chol Ung’s underground businesses are illegal at both home and abroad, and there is a high risk of arrest at any time. However, he is willing to do such sanctions violating activities because of the Kim family’s reward of allowing him to live an elite lifestyle in the DPRK society. The most eye-catching part is the son of Nam’s family. Nam Chol Ung’s son has a work experience at a UN organization as an intern. And now, he is trying to get a 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 DPRK regime, especially when the UN has continued to stress the need to put the DPRK under utmost pressure.
Also, Nam Chol Ung’s wife currently resides in China and is responsible for managing all of Nam Chol Ung’s assets. However, China continues to refuse to officially comment on the matter. According to the report, name Chol Ung established several ‘paper companies’ in Dalian, China, to carry out illegal trade activities, such as providing temporary storage for goods imported from third countries before being transported to the DPRK.
The DPRK also uses money from the fund generated by Lazarus, a cyber-hacking group of the regime. The report does not especially focus on Nam Chol Ung, but explains the RGB’s methods of conducting underground businesses abroad by deploying RGB agents like Nam Chol Ung. Therefore, the Panel of Experts recommended to designate 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 individuals’ illegal activities carried out in many countries around the world, this report should serve as a case study and send a serious warning to the relevant 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.

As Preparation for the Korea-Africa summit scheduled to take place in Seoul in the month of June, 2024 gathers momentum, officials from the diplomatic mission of African countries in Korea and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have continued their consultative meetings.

With South Korea already trading partners with top countries like the US, China, Japan, Vietnam, Turkey, India, New Zealand, Peru, the European Union, they now seek to add African countries as trading allies for mutual benefits which is the essence of the Korea-Africa summit.

As explained by the Korean ambassador Dong-han Yang, during his meeting with African ambassadors, the summit will provide an opportunity to form future-oriented partnership with their African counterparts.

Also, to be able to share development experiences with their partners in Africa so that the dynamism of the African countries can revitalise the growth of participating countries.
The theme of the summit: ‘The Future We Make Together: Shared Growth,Sustainability, and Solidarity’ is to discuss, amongst other things, a roadmap for strategic cooperations between South Korea and African countries.
The prioritised collaboration areas expected also include addressing global challenges, sustainable energy, and infrastructure. Others are the development of human resources, including TVET; science, technology, and digital transformation, promoting people to people exchange, and achieving peace and security.
During the summit, South Korea will be launching Official Negotiations for the first ever Free Trade Association, FTA with African countries, because, currently, out of its 21 FTAs with 27 countries, none is with African countries.

The Korea-Africa summit holding in June 2024, is expected to reverse the current status, where Africa constitutes only one percent of Korean trade with the rest of the world, and it will also enable African countries to export produce directly to Korea instead of going via other countries,such as Vietnam,China, and India.

The gains of the Korea-Africa summit shall see several countries, including the President Tinubu led FG, tap into the trading and investment values running into billions of dollars. The Korea-Africa summit shall also provide opportunities for sideline meetings just like the G20 summit held in Delhi, a summit where the African Union was confered with a permanent member title, where President Tinubu was able to meet with leaders of the US, Germany and even South Korea.

A North Korean defector who fled the country when he was 17, Ilhyeok Kim
has knocked China after reports emerged that the Chinese government allegedly willy-nilly returned more than 500 North Korean defectors.
Speaking at the United Nations Security Council meeting held in August, Kim
alleged that defectors sent back to North Korea were made to suffer series of punishments including forced labor, imprisonment, torture, or execution.

In a brief chat with newsmen to commemorate the Korea National Day Reception held in Abuja on November 2, the North Korean defector who currently resides in South Korea called on the Republic of China to uphold its obligations as a permanent member of the United Nations.

According to him, China subscribed to the 1982 Refugee Convention which prohibits the expulsion or return of refugees to places where their lives or freedom may be threatened. Moreover, Kim said that China also signed the 1988 Convention Against Torture banning expulsion and return to countries where there is a risk of torture.

Emphasis on the fact that North Korean defectors are recognized as refugees under these international law was made by Kim, he however expressed dismayed that the Chinese government refused to acknowledge them as such which he claimed is obviously in violation of international law.
When deported, Kim disclosed that defectors are often subjected to forced labour in re-education camps or correctional facilities, where they barely survive while enduring harsh treatments.

“In many cases, they are taken to political prisoner camps and never get to see the outside world again, even until death. Even worse, some might face public executions by way of exemplary punishment to the public. One of the serious offenses in North Korea is called a “betrayal of the party and the homeland” which can lead to a public execution, serving as violent means by the party to force loyalty to the regime”, he added.

The Alleged Forced Repatriation is in contrast to the Mutual aid and cooperation treaty which the China Authority ratified with North Korea since 1961, Kim noted further.

In Spite of international condemnation, Kim lamented that the China Government has continued to ignore the human rights agreement it signed.

Kim called on the South Korean government and international community;

“The remaining 2,000 or so North Korean refugees who are at imminent risk of forced repatriation by the Chinese regime should be allowed to reach any places on their own will. The approximately 600 defectors who have already been repatriated likely face severe realities.

“The South Korean government and the international community must collaborate to ensure that the remaining North Korean defectors in China can find freedom. If we do not make efforts and simply stand by, many innocent people will die while gazing at the same sky we see. North Korean refugees can live one more ordinary day like.