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If a country is subject to sanctions, you can be sure of one thing.
They try by all means to break them.
That is why it is more than legally naive when Foreign Minister Ann Linde says she is appalled at how dictator Kim Jong-un is trying to blow up the international community.
For several decades, North Korea has occasionally been hit with economic sanctions from the outside world for secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Since North Korea conducted new nuclear tests a few years ago and launched test missiles, sanctions have become particularly harsh.
So when a Danish documentary shown on SVT this weekend points out how North Korea is trying to circumvent these sanctions, it certainly provides an interesting insight into how North Koreans work, but it’s really nothing new.
The documentaries pretend to be Danish businessmen who are interested in buying North Korean weapons in dire need of foreign exchange.
In a commentary to the documentary “Mullvaden”, Ann Linde tells Swedish Radio.
– It is shocking information that arises. That is why the Danish Foreign Minister and I have reacted so strongly. We will inform the UN Sanctions Committee of what has come out. We will also tackle the problem in the EU.
Why are you so surprised, Ann Linde?
Did you think that Kim Jong-un would obediently comply with international sanctions? Or did you not know that there are states and individuals who are willing to help North Korea for adequate compensation?
North Korean diplomats and embassies have long been known to play an important role in this management.
Photo: BJÖRN LINDAHL
Foreign Minister Ann Linde.
Blunt instrument
I understand if Ann Linde, according to current media dramaturgy, feels like she needs to react to information, but I would be very disappointed if she was really shocked. She generally gives the impression of having her feet more firmly on the ground than her more idealistic predecessor, Margot Wallström.
International sanctions are a very powerful instrument, but in addition to direct acts of war, it is one of the few things the outside world can do when a country misbehaves.
One of the few times that sanctions really did work was in the abolition of the white apartheid regime in South Africa. But they wanted to be respected and make friends with Europe and the United States. North Korea and several other states that consider themselves outcasts hardly have that ambition.
Sanctions against Russia are still in effect for its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and new ones will now arrive for the attempted assassination of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny. The same is happening against Belarus because of the attempt by the dictator Lukashenko to quell popular protests.
Of course, the Russians are doing everything they can to circumvent sanctions through legal and illegal means, just as Belarus will.
Few countries in the world have been subjected to such harsh and prolonged sanctions as North Korea. And few countries have such a long history of trying to break sanctions.
But how can one be surprised that they are trying and that there are unscrupulous people all over the world who are happy to help them as long as they can earn a dollar?
Chunky dollar bundles
In the Danish documentary, the fake businessmen see drawings of a North Korean underground arms factory to be built in Uganda. It is not easy to know if this is really true or if North Korea is just trying to steal money from fake entrepreneurs.
But surprised?
Of course, it is good that Ann Linde addresses North Korea’s attempts to break sanctions in both the EU and the UN Sanctions Committee. The only way to try to stop the sanctions is to learn how North Korea works.
But all the gaps will never be plugged. There are other rogue regimes in the world that are willing to work with North Korea in exchange for, among other things, nuclear secrets. Pakistan is one of the countries that has been able to acquire nuclear weapons with the help of North Korea, among other things. Iran is cooperating with North Korea.
There are always people who will do anything for a few dollars.
So instead of being naively surprised, it is better for the world’s foreign ministers to look at reality with open eyes and act the best they can against sanctioners.
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