Update added !
Another Taiwanese businessman has been questioned on suspicion of transporting oil
to a North Korean buyer in the open seas,
Taiwan prosecutors
said on Friday.
Chuang Chin-hung, 56, was questioned over the alleged
sale of 7,000 tonnes of diesel oil to North Korea in December,
prosecutors said. He was
released on NT$2 million (US$68,400) bail
and will face further questioning.
Ship-to-ship transfers of oil violate UN sanctions imposed on Pyongyang over its
nuclear weapons programme.
“We have found that Chuang is the owner of a Marshall Island-registered trading company …
and used the Jin Hye oil tanker, which he owns, to sell oil in international waters,”
a spokesman for the Kaohsiung prosecutors office said on Friday.
Russia warns totally cutting oil supplies to North Korea would be
seen by Pyongyang as act of war. [South China Morning Post]
North Korean diplomats en route to Moscow for talks over mutual
cooperation, the Russian Embassy in North Korea said. [Reuters]
|
The spokesman said the tanker was found to have loaded oil from Taiwan in November and
transported the oil to a North Korean vessel in the East China Sea in December. But in
the port and customs documents, Chuang allegedly wrote that the tanker was transporting
the oil to Hong Kong.
Chuang, however, said he was unaware that the buyer was North Korea, but was unable to
explain the false information in the documents, the spokesman said.
Chuang is the second Taiwanese national suspected of selling oil to North Korea.
Last month, prosecutors placed Kaohsiung-based businessman
Chen Shih-hsien and his overseas companies on a sanction list for allegedly
selling oil to North Korean vessels in international waters.
The Kaohsiung prosecutors office alleged that Chen, who owns two fishing companies
in Kaohsiung, was the dealer behind the transfer of oil to North Korea through the
Hong Kong-registered Lighthouse Winmore in the Yellow Sea.
The tanker was seized by South Korean officials after it allegedly transferred about
600 tonnes of oil to a North Korean vessel in October.
[Source:
South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and
Reuters on February 2nd, 2018]
..............................
约旦宣布与朝鲜断交
Jordan declares to cut off diplomatic relations with North Korea.
根据该声明，约旦王室已批准政府这一决定。约旦将不再承认朝鲜驻约旦大使，
约旦也将停止其驻朝鲜大使的工作。
Based on that statement, the Royal Court of Jordan already approved
the government's decision. Jordan will no longer recognize North
Korea's abassador in its country. It will stop as well the activity
of its own ambassador to North Korea.
美国政府去年向一些国家施加压力，敦促它们与朝鲜切断外交和经济联系以孤立朝鲜。
Last year, the U.S. government put pressure on some countries urging them
to cut off their diplomatic and economic relations with North Korea in order
to isolate that country.
Jordan is therefore joining the regional pro-American alliance in the
Middle East as presented by countries like Kuwait that is now hailing
the Jordanian decision.
[Source:
XinHua 新华
on February 2nd, 2018]
..............................
Newsweek article dating from January 31, 2018.
..............................
美国计划对朝“流鼻血打击” 韩国忧心
The US are planning a "Bloody Nose Strike" on North Korea
South Korea is worried.
[Source:
RFA Radio Free Asia
自由亚洲电台普通话, Chinese language site from
Washington DC on February 2nd, 2018]
