Chinese firms dodge sanctions to trade with North Korea, says security analyst
Harvard’s Dr John Park tells Hong Kong audience intelligence shows sanctions against North Korea have provided opportunities for Chinese companies to deal with Pyongyang, helping the Kim regime develop its missile programme
Asian security analyst Dr John Park speaks quickly, his rapid dialogue conveying the urgency of his subject. He was in Hong Kong this month to discuss the North Korean nuclear crisis.
It was a pressing issue when he planned his trip a couple of months ago. Two days before he arrived, it became even more critical – North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that experts said would be capable of reaching the west coast of the United States. It has since said it is considering firing missiles into the sea near the US Pacific territory of Guam.
“The sense of euphoria in the Kim [Jong-un] regime is pretty high in the sense that they are on the cusp of making history. Never has a country that is not a great power possessed a nuclear ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile],” says Park, director of the Korea Working Group at Harvard Kennedy School in the US.
If you view sanctions as antibiotics, then North Korea is exhibiting superbug traits
He was speaking at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, in one of a string of public and private speaking engagements during his time in Hong Kong.
Events are moving quickly and Park didn’t mince words, saying the threat posed by North Korea to the US is now higher than that of terrorism. But the burning question is: how has North Korea succeeded in making such rapid progress with its nuclear programme?
