THE government has until the end of December this year to ensure that all North Koreans residing or working in Namibia are deported to their country, or face heavy United Nations sanctions.
The UN Security Council has given all member states until 1 January 2020 to cut economic ties with North Korea in a bid to force that country to give up its nuclear weapons programme.
This call was re-emphasised by various speakers during a series of briefings for African media on the United States of America’s foreign policy on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The briefings took place in the USA and South Korea last month, and focused on the ongoing negotiations between the USA, North Korea and South Korea on the denuclearisation and unification of the Korean Penisula.
Namibia and 14 other African countries were listed among countries which allegedly supported North Korea’s nuclear programme by funding various projects undertaken by Mansudae Overseas Projects, ranging from munitions factories, state houses and apartments.
Mansudae is the company which built the Heroes Acre and the new State House in Windhoek. The North Korean company also built the War Memorial and Independence Museum, the Suiderhof Military Base, and the new defence ministry headquarters.
The Namibian reported in 2017 that the government had terminated its contracts with Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation and Mansudae Overseas Projects in a bid to comply with the UN Security Council’s sanctions on North Korea.
Despite this stance by the government, a coordinator of the UN panel of experts on North Korea, Hugh Griffiths, in 2017 accused Namibia of not complying with UN sanctions against the DPRK by not submitting progress reports to the Security Council’s sanctions committee timeously.
Mansudae has been linked by UN investigators to alleged weapons exporters, the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (Komid).
The Namibian international relations ministry at the time rejected these allegations, saying it had submitted reports to the UN sanctions committee as required, “the last having been submitted on 8 April 2017”.
International relations minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah told The Namibian yesterday that Namibia has complied and continues to comply with UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea.
She added that the country has implemented the sanctions demands, and has not received any follow-up instructions from the UN sanctions committee.
She furthermore stated that if there was a new UN resolution which calls for member states to cut economic ties with North Korea, she was not aware of it.
Earlier this year, defence minister Penda ya Ndakolo also reiterated that the government had ended its contract with the North Korean company, and that defence-owned company August 26 Holdings had taken over the construction work at the defence headquarters after the North Koreans had left the country.
The latest UN panel of experts’ report released in March this year states that the North Korean company – Mansudae Overseas Projects – had also auctioned off its assets in Namibia in 2017.
According to the report seen by The Namibian, the government briefed the UN panel of experts that it held a private auction on 26 June 2017, and sold off all Mansudae’s vehicles and equipment.
“Namibia provided a statement from an individual who had purchased one vehicle as evidence. Namibia also stated in the above-mentioned letter that Mansudae’s four tipper trucks were on site at the Suiderhof military base, about which the panel requested further information, in addition to the 23 Mansudae-owned vehicles and other heavy construction equipment,” the report reads. Due to the sensitivity of the matter, some US and South Korean officials will not be identified in this article.
During a briefing with the US department of state, a US official stated that countries reluctant to send back North Korean citizens to their country were in violation of the UN sanctions regime, and risk being punished by the global body.
The official said the UN Security Council’s sanctions regime against the DPRK was not meant to punish the countries that had relations with Pyongyang in the past, but to force North Korea to come to negotiations to end its nuclear programme.
“It was in no way a punishment for countries that are dealing or had relations with North Korea, but member states who are not implementing the sanctions are only helping North Korea to evade the sanctions and continue with its nuclear programme,” the official stated.
Despite several meetings between the United Nations, the US, North Korea and other global leaders, the country remains reluctant to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
The official added that North Korea has failed to provide assurances that it has stopped making nuclear weapons, and UN member states therefore want to increase pressure on the DPRK to give up its nuclear programme.
Despite increased pressure on North Korea, officials from the United States and South Korea during the two weeks’ briefings maintained that the two countries would do anything to avoid a nuclear war.
