Myanmar expelled N. Korean diplomat in June over role in weapons exports

A newly released UN report has revealed that earlier this year, the Myanmar government expelled a North Korean diplomat who was linked to a company subject to UN Security Council sanctions.

“The Government took necessary action against Mr. Kim Chol Nam, a national of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) working as a Second Secretary at the Embassy of the DPRK in Yangon, Myanmar, who reportedly belonged to the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), against which sanctions have been imposed by the United Nations Security Council,” said a document dated October 6 from the Permanent Mission of Myanmar to the United Nations.

The document was cited in a report dated October 9 and later posted on the website of the Security Council’s committee on North Korea sanctions.

“On 26 April 2017, the Embassy of the DPRK was notified to send him back, and accordingly he and his family left Myanmar on 9 June 2017,” the citation concluded.

KOMID is believed to be a channel for North Korea’s exports of weapons and equipment related to ballistic missiles. It has been subject to Security Council sanctions since 2009. It is also subject to US sanctions.

“The Republic of the Union of Myanmar is fully committed to the implementation of Security Council resolutions, including resolutions 2371 (2017), 2321 (2016) and 2270 (2016), and supports efforts to resolve the issue of denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful and constructive manner,” the report added.

Myanmar’s relationship with North Korea was shattered in 1983, when North Korean agents set off explosives in Yangon’s Martyrs’ Mausoleum in an attempt to assassinate South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan. The president was unharmed, but 21 others were killed.

However, the relationship has quietly improved since the 1990s. Reports have emerged over the years of North Korean workers being spotted at Myanmar weapons factories and of Myanmar purchasing weapons from North Korea. Kim Chol Nam’s role at the North Korean embassy in Myanmar has been described as consistent with these reports.

This month’s report marked the first time Myanmar country has submitted an implementation report on sanctions imposed on North Korea, but it was not the first time Myanmar expelled a sanctioned North Korean diplomat. In March 2016, North Korean ambassador Kim Sok Chol was expelled from Myanmar in compliance with US and South Korean sanctions for his role as a “KOMID facilitator.”