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Kruger National Park and the North Korean Connection
 BLUF:[BBC] The investigative reporter Julian Rademeyer spotted a news report about the arrests and started delving deeper, eventually publishing the landmark study Diplomats and Deceit. When I visited Rademeyer in Johannesburg, I was shocked to hear about the extent of North Korea’s involvement in the trade as he had detailed in his report. "A number of North Korea’s African embassies form a nexus of illicit trade in rhino horn, cigarettes and minerals," he wrote. Rademeyer explains further "that the diplomats are working under the auspices of Bureau 38, a shadowy government department whose sole purpose is to accrue hard currency". He also predicted that: "Increasingly stringent economic sanctions designed to cripple North Korea’s nuclear weapons capabilities will likely fuel the expansion of the regime’s illicit activities and state-sponsored criminal networks." Moving down a bit: South Africa’s Kruger National Park and the private game reserves that surround it have militarised their anti-poaching units - equipping them with aircraft, drones and sophisticated weaponry. Then there's the likes of Vetpaw (Veterans Empowered to Protect African Wildlife), an American charity which sends veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to Africa to train anti-poaching rangers. You can follow them on Twitter. Burly, heavily armed men in baseball caps, sunglasses and army fatigues post pictures of their captives with captions like “Gotcha!”. Some experts now fear an arms race is developing between poachers and gamekeepers. Posted by: Besoeker 2018-01-05 |
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