WASHINGTON, 3 Nov (AP) \u2014 Chinese middlemen launder the proceeds of North Korean hackers\u2019 cyber heists while Chinese ships deliver sanctioned North Korean goods to Chinese ports.<\/p>\n
Chinese companies help North Koreans workers \u2014 from cheap laborers to well-paid IT specialists \u2014 find work abroad. A Beijing art gallery even boasts of North Korean artists working 12-hour days in its heavily surveilled compound, churning out paintings of idyllic visions of life under communism that each sell for thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all part of what international authorities say is a growing mountain of evidence that shows Beijing is helping cash-strapped North Korea evade a broad range of international sanctions designed to hamper Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear weapons program, according to an Associated Press review of United Nations reports, court records and interviews with experts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s overwhelming,\u201d Aaron Arnold, a former member of a U.N. panel on North Korea and a sanctions expert at the Royal United Services Institute, said of the links between China and sanctions evasion. \u201cAt this point, it\u2019s very hard to say it\u2019s not intentional.\u201d<\/p>\n
China has had a complicated relationship with Pyongyang since the 1950-53 Korean War. Though uneasy with a nuclear menace at its doorstep, China doesn\u2019t want its neighbor\u2019s government to collapse, experts say. China views North Korea as a buffer against the U.S., which maintains a significant troop presence in South Korea.<\/p>\n
Beijing has long maintained it enforces the sanctions it has supported since North Korea started testing nuclear weapons and forcefully pushed back on any suggestions to the contrary. \u201cChina has been fully and strictly implementing the (U.N. Security Council) resolutions,\u201d a Chinese ambassador said in a recent letter to the U.N, adding that his country had \u201csustained great losses\u201d in doing so.<\/p>\n
But in recent years, Beijing has sought to weaken those very sanctions and last year vetoed new restrictions on Pyongyang after it conducted a nuclear test.<\/p>\n
This summer a top ruling Chinese party official provided a vivid example of China\u2019s ambiguity on sanctions as he stood clapping next to North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un during a Pyongyang military parade. Rolling past the two men were trucks carrying nuclear-capable missiles and other weapons the regime isn\u2019t supposed to have.<\/p>\n
They were joined by Russia\u2019s defense minister, apparently part of a new effort by the Kremlin, struggling in its invasion of Ukraine, to strength ties with North Korea. The U.S. has accused North Korea of supplying artillery shells and rockets to Russia, while new evidence shows Hamas fighters likely fired North Korean weapons during their Oct. 7 assault on Israel.<\/p>\n
But while Russia and a handful of other countries have been accused of helping North Korea evade sanctions, none has been as prolific as China, according to court records and international reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina violates North Korea sanctions it voted for and says won\u2019t work because it\u2019s afraid they\u2019ll work. And, also, says it isn\u2019t violating them\u201d said Joshua Stanton, a human rights advocate and attorney who has helped write U.S. sanction laws against North Korea.<\/p>\n
A review by the AP found a majority of the people placed on the U.S. government\u2019s sanctions list related to North Korea in recent years have ties to China. Many are North Koreans working for alleged Chinese front companies while others are Chinese citizens who U.S. authorities say launder money or procure weapons material for North Korea.<\/p>\n
North Korea has said the U.S.-led sanctions against it are stifling its economy, calling them proof of U.S. hostility against the country.<\/p>\n
Besides sanctions, U.S. criminal prosecutions against individuals or entities assisting North Korea\u2019s regime often have links to China.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s especially true for cases related to North Korea\u2019s sophisticated hackers, who experts believe have stolen upwards of $3 billion in digital currency in recent years. That windfall has coincided with the speedy growth of the country\u2019s missile and weapons program.<\/p>\n
An indictment filed earlier this year alleges that a Chinese middleman helped launder cryptocurrency stolen by the regime\u2019s top hackers into U.S. dollars. And a similar case was filed in 2020 that accused two Chinese brokers of laundering more than $100 million in digital currencies stolen by North Korea.<\/p>\n
Such \u201cover-the-counter\u201d brokers allow North Korean hackers to bypass know-your-customer rules governing banks and other financial exchanges.<\/p>\n
North Korea depends heavily on China\u2019s financial system and Chinese companies to obtain prohibited technology and goods, as well as to acquire U.S. dollars and gain access to the global financial system, records show.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe (Chinese) banks are less rigorous because the Chinese government is not pushing them,\u201d said former top U.S. Treasury official Anthony Ruggiero.<\/p>\n
North Korea imported more than $250,000 worth of aluminum oxide, which can be used in processing nuclear weapons fuel, from a Chinese company in 2015, according to customs records cited in a think tank report. U.S. prosecutors have alleged the same company accounted for a significant share of overall trade between North Korea and China; its customers included the Chinese government\u2019s Ministry of Commerce, which was bidding on North Korean projects.<\/p>\n
Images from North Korean military parades have shown the regime\u2019s nuclear missiles being transported on launchers made with Chinese heavy-duty truck chassis. China told the U.N. panel of experts that North Korea had promised it would use the trucks to move timber.<\/p>\n
China regularly ignores reams of satellite photos and vessel tracking data compiled by a U.N. panel of experts showing Chinese-flagged vessels docking with North Korean ships and transferring goods. North Korean ships are banned by U.N. sanctions from participating in ship-to-ship transfers, which are often done to obscure the flow of sanctioned goods like coal exports and oil imports.<\/p>\n
The U.S. and other leading democracies sent China a letter this summer saying they were \u201cdisappointed\u201d that satellite photos continue to show cargo ships that have allegedly been documented breaking sanctions operating in Chinese ports and territorial waters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe international community is closely watching China\u2019s commitment to upholding its UN obligations,\u201d the letter warns.<\/p>\n
China dismisses such findings, frequently saying that its own investigations uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing, without providing any alternative information or explanation.<\/p>\n
Beijing said last year it couldn\u2019t provide Chinese port of call records for several North Korean ships because the U.N. panel hadn\u2019t provided the ships\u2019 IMO number, a unique identifier painted on large vessels. Those numbers can easily be looked up using a ship\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
Eric Penton-Voak, the former coordinator of the U.N. panel of experts, said such excuses were ludicrous in light of China\u2019s vast surveillance powers and showed the ruling communist party\u2019s contempt for enforcing the sanctions it agreed to.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just grasping at any straw\u201c to avoid providing an answer, he said.<\/p>\n
When the U.N. panel urged Beijing to investigate Chinese garment companies that were likely employing North Korean workers, China said there was nothing it could do because the tip was too vague. The U.N. panel, Beijing said, had only provided the company names in Korean and English. China told the U.N. panel in a letter that its \u201cbusiness registration system uses only the Chinese language.\u201d<\/p>\n
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