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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Asia Expert sez Hyundai Helped Fund Nork Uranium Program |
| 2005-03-29 |
| An American Asia expert says money Hyundai gave to North Korea might have accelerated North Korea's highly enriched uranium (HEU) weapons program. Thank you, Hyundai, for aiding and abetting the enemy. Larry A. Niksch of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), who regularly publishes reports on North Korea and the Korea-U.S. relationship, said in his Feb. 22 report Hyundai funds went into accelerating North Korea's secret HEU development program. He said the money Hyundai gave Pyongyang accounted for at least 30 percent of North Korea's foreign currency earnings between 1999 and 2000. A princely percentage to the Norks while their people starve. According to a CIA estimate, it was between this time and 2001 that North Korea accelerated its HEU program, he said. He added it was at that time that the North went shopping for supplies and parts from abroad for the program, and its HEU program went from the research and development stage to procuring and installing equipment capable of producing weapons. But Niksch said the conclusion about the ultimate use of Hyundai's money was not the CIA's but his own, based on strong circumstantial evidence. The report said Hyundai's funds went straight into the Korean Workers Party's Bureau 39 reportedly managed by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Bureau 39 has been in charge of obtaining parts and supplies for the country's weapons of mass destruction program. Hyundai is said to have paid North Korea an estimated US$600 million for its Geumgang Mountains tourism project and two other business projects in the North, as well as US$500 million in under-the-table remittances, between 1999 and 2003. US$500 million is quite the chunk of change. Remember that when you are shopping for a Hyundai car. Niksch first fingered Hyundai for covert transactions with the North in a report released in March 2002 in which he claimed that the company had secretly paid North Korea US$400 million in addition to the US$400 million it officially gave Pyongyang. |
| Posted by:Alaska Paul |
| #3 We should boycott the SOBs. |
| Posted by: Glereper Craviter7929 2005-03-29 6:21:35 PM |
| #2 Sigh. Hyundai making decent cars finally, and now this. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-03-29 5:23:32 PM |
| #1 You know everyone was cheering when Hyundai and other SK businesses opened shop in the North. Was there any doubt where the profits would go? Oh I forget that was during the "elightened time" of President Clinton and not during the dark times of President Bush. How much did Madeline Halfbright get? |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2005-03-29 5:18:30 PM |