And it’s also accusing Russia of assisting in North Korean proliferation

Scandal

The American Center for Nonproliferation Studies released a report yesterday claiming that North Korean authorities, with the help of private Russian companies, are providing ballistic missile to third countries, Iran, Syria and Pakistan in particular. This information comes at the same time as a scandal is unfolding over the North Korean regime’s transfer of a considerable part of its bank accounts to Russia, skirting American sanctions. Although these accusations are only coming from NGOs right now, they may become the case of the next strain in Russian-American relations.

Pyongyang’s Money

Peter Beck, head of the authoritative international NGO International Crisis Group told Kommersant yesterday that Russia is “the last financial refuge for the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea.” He added that the United States sees “a high degree of likelihood” in that charge, given Moscow’s disinterest in overthrowing the North Korean regime. “I am certain that Washington will soon begin to apply the appropriate pressure on Moscow,” Beck added.

It is a serious accusation, considering that only the Central Bank of Russia could work with Pyongyang in the financial sphere. “Like any Russian bank, we can only open accounts for residents,” Kommersant was told in a state bank. “In that connection, the suggestion of a possible transfer of North Korean government or state company accounts to a Russian bank is absurd, to say the least.” North Korea could, however, use the accounts of its embassy in Moscow to transfer money. In that case, the money would be in Vneshtorgbank, which traditionally services the diplomatic missions in Moscow. Vneshtorgbank refused to comment on that suggestion yesterday.

“The information you want to receive is in the category of client information. We do not provide that information, regardless of whether have such a legal entity among our clients or not,” Vneshtorgbank senior vice president Vasily Titov told the newspaper yesterday.

Chinese opinion of North Korea is mostly that it is an economically backwards country. Now it seems criticism has turned to public policy

Recently, Chinese internet users are raising criticism on the North Korean regime.

Inside photos of North Korea have been successively posted on Chinese websites (DailyNK report 23rd, Aug 2006) criticizing the Kim Jong Il regime with remarks ‘North Korea must instigate reform’ and ‘What generation is this that they are still starving?’

On 25th August, the DailyNK searched internet sites ‘Photofans’ and ‘North Korea Today.’ These sites exposed inside photos of North Korea and were full of criticism such as “Two Kims should retire from their position and South Korea seize North Korea” “Overthrow the government like Saddam Hussein.”

Particularly since the missile launch last July 5th, Chinese Internet users have been showing greater interest. In addition crime amongst defectors around the North Korea-China border and home raids by North Korean commanding officers on Chinese soil have incited aversion towards the North Korean regime amidst Chinese people.

While censorship remains tight in China, one can always count on the freedom to criticize other countries.

An activist is released and deported, but continues to help North Korean refugees

For the last 15 months, Phillip Buck, 69, an evangelical pastor from Seattle, Washington sat in a jail cell in northeastern China his health deteriorating, not knowing when—or even if—he would get out and see his family in the U.S. again. The only thing he knew, he wrote in a letter from the jailhouse earlier this year, is that his cause was just.

Now he is free. Buck had been a key member of the so-called underground railroad that moves refugees from North Korea through China to safety in South Korea. On Monday, Aug. 21, the Chinese government released him, having convicted him of transiting people illegally out of the country. His sentence — following more than a year of jail time in the city of Yanjie— was deportation and a fine. “I was jailed with killers, robbers and other hardened criminals,” Buck told TIME, “but I did nothing wrong. All I was doing was helping the [North Korean] refugees.” Buck had devoted his ministry since 1997 to the cause of aiding North Koreans. Then, with North Korea in the midst of a famine that killed thousands, he set up and operated a small noodle factory there. But he soon decided “he wanted to help in a more direct way,” his daughter Grace says, and by the late 90s became involved in the loose network of people—some affiliated with Christian churches in South Korea, Europe and the U.S.—who try to bring North Koreans out via China.

They are not always successful. In 2002, Buck had a narrow escape. He had helped moved “a lot of people” of people out of China and into South Korea by then, his daughter says, and his organization had been infiltrated by an informant. Chinese authorities raided one of Buck’ s safe houses and arrested a group of refugees en route to South Korea. Buck’ s apartment in Yanji, in northeastern China, was searched, but he was out of the country at the time and escaped capture. His family pleaded with him not to return — to no avail– and in May of 2005 he was arrested in Yanji. “They [the Chinese authorities] had been after me ever since 2002,” Buck says. His sentence includes a ban from ever going back to China, but Buck says he still has a network of people in the country helping run the underground railroad, and he will now figure out ways to help them from afar, in part by raising money to house and feed North Korean refugees in China. “Every day in prison–457 days—I thought about the refugees and prayed to God to help them. My work is nowhere near finished.”

I hope everyone, even those living in America and far from Korea, have the same drive as Buck when it comes to helping refugees. When the day comes that there will be terrible consequences for one’s actions, will you be ready to stand up to beliefs?