On North Korea
Sanctions, US Hits Latvia's ABLV
Bank While UN Steers DPRK to UN
Federal Credit Union
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Full letter to UN
here
UNITED NATIONS,
February 14 – While the UN's
North Korea sanctions
committee holds closed-door
member state meetings followed
by upbeat read-outs, the US is
moving to sanction the largest
private bank in Latvia, ABLV Bank,
for business with North Korean
firms ranging from Ocean
Maritime
Management Co
to North Korea’s Foreign Trade
Bank. The latter was cited by
Pyongyang in a recent letter
to the UN asking for an accommodation
to pay its 2018 dues directly,
and not by a "swap" (see below).
When Inner City Press asked,
the spokesman for UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres said
North Korea will be doing its
business through the UN
Federal Credit Union, of which
UN staff in Sudan have
complained to Inner City
Press. We'll have more on
this. While the formally named
Democratic Republic of Korea
last year paid its UN dues as
a "swap," for this year's
$180,000 it has told the UN
that sanctions are prohibiting
the transfer and asks that the
UN take action. Vice Minister
Pak
Myong Guk
wrote to UN
Department of
Management
chief Jan
Beagle, in a
letter
obtained by
Inner City
Press and
available in
full here
on Patreon,
that "Last
year we paid our contribution
to the UN in the form of swap
with the operation expenses of
the UN agencies in the DPRK,
purely out of its position to
honor its obligation as a UN
member state, but it is an
abnormal method which cannot
be applied continuously in
view of our state law and
regulations. I would like to
kindly request the UN
Secretariat to take measures,
in
conformity with its mission
with impartiality and
independence as lifeline, to
secure promptly the bank
transaction channel through
which the regular payment of
the DPRK’s contribution is
made possible." We'll have
more on this. Back on January
17 when the UN's Committee on
Relations with the Host
Country met, the
representative of the
Democratic People's Republic
of Korea read a three-page
statement condemning the US
for issuing his Mission to the
UN's tax-exempt card in the
name "North Korea" and not
Democratic People's Republic
of Korea. He said, "We
presumed it would be only a
kind of technical mistake by
the U.S. side, and returned
the card back to the U.S.
mission, while requesting them
to correct that serious
mistake." The statement, which
Inner City Press has
exclusively obtained
immediately after the meeting
(photos here,
full PDF of letter via
Patreon, here)
continued that the U.S.
mission replied, "It seems to
be a glitch in our database,
we'll reach out to our office
in DC." That was on December
13, the statement said,
continuing: "on 14th December
there was an explanation from
the U.S. mission informing
that, quoted as 'Our DC office
has indicated that all country
/ mission names on OFM
credentials for Democratic
People's Republic of Korea
indicate North Korea which is
the conventional short
abbreviation. The short name
for the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea is North
Korea, so the tax card will
remain the same." The
statement concluded by
condemning "such reckless
political hostile policy" and
demanded an apology. Watch
this site. Throughout 2016 New
Zealand documentary maker
Gaylene Preston and her crew
staked out the UN Security
Council along with Inner City
Press, awaiting the results of
the straw polls to elected Ban
Ki-moon's sucessor as UN
Secretary General. Preston's
focus was Helen Clark, the
former New Zealand prime
minister then in her second
term as Administrator of the
UN Development Program.
Preston would ask Inner City
Press after each poll, What
about Helen Clark's chances?
Suffice it to say Clark never
caught fire as a candidate.
Inner City Press told Preston,
as did many other interviewees
in her documentary “My Year
with Helen,” that it might be
sexism. But it might be power
too - including Samantha
Power, the US Ambassador who
spoke publicly about gender
equality and then in secret
cast a ballot Discouraging
Helen Clark, and praised
Antonio Guterres for his
energy (yet to be seen).
Samantha Power's hypocrisy is
called out in Preston's film,
in which New Zealand's
Ambassador complains that
fully four members of the
Council claimed to be the
single “No Opinion” vote that
Clark received. There was a
private screening of My Year
With Helen on December 4 at
NYU's King Juan Carlos Center,
attended by a range of UN
staff, a New Zealand designer
of a website for the country's
proposal new flag, and Ban
Ki-moon's archivist, among
others. After the screening
there was a short Q&A
session. Inner City Press used
that to point out that
Guterres has yet to criticize
any of the Permanent Five
members of the Council who did
not block him as the US,
France and China blocked
Clark, with Russia casting a
“No Opinion.” And that
Guterres picked a male from
among France's three
candidates to head UN
Peacekeeping which they own,
and accepted males from the UK
and Russia for “their” top
positions. Then over New
Zealand wine the talk turned
to the new corruption at the
UN, which is extensive, and
the upcoming dubious Wall
Street fundraiser of the UN
Correspondents Association,
for which some in attendance
had been shaken down, as one
put it, for $1200. The
UN needed and needs to be
shaken up, and hasn't been.
But the film is good, and
should be screened not in the
UN Censorship Alliance but
directly in the UN Security
Council, on the roll-down
movie screen on which failed
envoys like Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed are projected. “My Year
With Helen” is well worth
seeing.
***
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