More from Taiwan

Although the P.R. of China and the DPRK are supposed to be as close together as “lips and teeth,” we have seen a couple of interesting stories emerging from Taiwan in the last few days.

Case 1: On Jan 8, the Straits Times reported that former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian embezzled money intended for the DPRK.

Case 2: Last Friday, the AFP reported that the US Treasury Depratment was moving on a Taiwanese couple who were allegedly facilitating shipping to the DPRK:

The US Treasury moved Friday to freeze the assets of a Taiwanese couple and their companies, linking them to North Korean weapons proliferation.

Alex HT Tsai and his wife Lu-chi Su were accused of providing support to the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), identified by Washington as a proliferator four years ago, the Treasury said in a statement.

Tsai was last year indicted by Taiwanese authorities for forging shipping invoices and illegally shipping restricted materials to nuclear-armed North Korea, it said.

“He has been involved in shipping items to North Korea that could be used to support North Korea’s advanced weapons program,” the statement said.

The companies controlled by the couple Global Interface Co and its subsidiary Trans Merits Co. were sanctioned by the Treasury action.

“Proliferators depend on access to the international financial and commercial systems to support their dangerous trade,” said Stuart Levey, Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“Our action today exposes a North Korean procurement channel, and we urge governments and companies worldwide to cut this channel off entirely,” he said.

Rad the full story here:
US freezes assets of Taiwanese couple and their companies
AFP
1/16/2009

Share

Comments are closed.