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.