According to the Daily NK:
One of the two North Koreans arrested on site for engaging in illegal trade of rhinoceros horns in Mozambique has been confirmed a Pyongyang diplomat, according to the Voice of America.
“Of the two arrested North Koreans, one was confirmed to be Park Chol Jun, a diplomat working at Pyongyang’s embassy in South Africa,” VOA reported, citing an official working at Seoul’s mission in the same country.
The two perpetrators, arrested on the 3rd this month, posted bail the following day and left the country for South Africa, the official said.
The North Korean mission there paid roughly 30,000 USD for their bail, the South Korean official said.
North Korean diplomats are said to often engage in illegal activities in other countries.
In March, a Pyongyang diplomat was deported from Bangladesh after attempting to smuggle in 27kg of gold, while in April, a couple from the North’s mission in Pakistan was caught selling alcohol on the streets of Karachi without a license.
“These kind of illegal activities have been around for a long time, because they stem from structural problems in operation,” Hong Sun Kyeong from the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea, who was also a former Pyongyang diplomat in Thailand, said. “Since the late 1970s, the North has not been giving its overseas missions money to operate. So not only do they have to make their own money, the state also makes it a rule that they have to wire back ‘loyalty foreign currency.’”
He added, “Back in the North, they do not recognize such illicit activities as being illegal, so even if officials are deported, they can just as easily be sent to missions in other countries.”
Here is coverage in the Joong Ang Ilbo.
Read the full story here:
Pyongyang diplomat caught in illegal trading of rhino horns
Daily NK
Kim Seong Hwan
2015-5-28
