South Korea, Japan and the United States on Friday called on the international community to repatriate North Korean workers abroad to reduce remittances used to finance Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction program.
The three diplomats, Kim Gunn (South Korea), Takehiro Funakoshi (Japan) and Sung Kim (United States), issued a statement at the end of the trilateral meeting in Seoul, condemning the repeated launches of ballistic missiles by North Korea. regime. , “as well as destabilizing rhetoric related to the use of nuclear weapons.”
The meeting comes 10 days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected tactical nuclear warheads, a type of weapon Pyongyang has never displayed before, as North Korea seeks to develop short-range atomic weapons for potential use. against South Korea or neighboring countries like Japan. .
In the statement, the three diplomats stressed “that, in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2397 of 2017, member states must repatriate all workers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.” [RPDC, nome oficial da Coreia do Norte] that are generating revenue in the respective jurisdictions”.
The text “deplores the violations of human rights” that implies the diversion of the income of these workers to finance the nuclear and missile program and highlights not only the physical workers, generally in activities such as logging or construction, but also the growing number of communications engineers from the North. Koreans who are being recruited under false nationalities.
“We are also deeply concerned about how the DPRK is financing these programs, weapons, through theft and laundering of funds, as well as gathering information through malicious cyber activities,” he added.
In 2022 alone, it is estimated that North Korea managed to steal cryptocurrencies worth 1.7 billion dollars (1.6 billion euros) through an army of ‘hackers’.
Source: TSF
