No Samsung phones for NK athletes; Goats to DPRK; Iranian oil flowing to new places; CBI money to capital markets
Prohibited Transactions for the week of 12 August 2024 (#58)
This image was created in Microsoft Copilot Designer on 30 May 2024 using the prompt “logo of a city landscape with North Korean and Iranian flags elements in the background”
North Korea
The International Olympic Committee stated that North Korean athletes did not receive Samsung’s “Olympic edition” Galaxy Z Flip 6 smartphone, which were distributed to all other athletes at the Olympic Games in Paris. Seoul noted that giving the smartphones to the North Korean athletes to bring home would violate international sanctions. //During the 2018 Olympics, North Korea refused to accept Samsung smartphones which were offered athletes, as the North Koreans would have been required to return them at the end of the Winter Games.
Relations between Pyongyang and Moscow continue to advance, as a sanctioned North Korean official — in charge of the country’s ballistic missile programs — attended a Russian military trade show in Moscow. Russia also sent approximately 450 goats to North Korea to provide dairy products to North Korean children. //This action, which is likely part of an effort to institutionalize cooperation between the two sides, also shows the dire economic situation in the North if they’re requesting livestock from Russia.
--
According to covert reporting from inside North Korea, the government is attempting to tighten controls on the sale and transport of pine mushrooms, which is usually exported and sold for foreign currency. //The mushrooms appear to sell well in the PRC.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was seen using a new model Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 4MATIC sport utility vehicle, which would violate international sanctions against the import of luxury goods into the DPRK.
According to Koryo Tours, a Beijing-based tour company, North Korea is opening up the northern city of Samjiyon (and possibly the rest of the country) to tourism in December 2024. //Earlier in the month, Washington DC extended for another year the restriction on US passport holders from traveling to or through the DPRK.
Reporters from Radio Free Asia were able to get a look inside and take video of North Korea’s abandoned embassy in Dakar, Senegal.
Iran
Iran is finding new destinations for its oil, including Bangladesh and Oman, and is using ship-to-ship transfers to obfuscate the source of the oil.
The US government is looking at new measures to try to stop Iran’s oil exports, noting that “sanctions evasion is very costly—paying middlemen, laundering money, and so on. We assess that the Iranian regime receives only a fraction of the revenue from its oil sales as a result.” //If true, it would still suggest the money Tehran is earning is worth all of the hassle.
There are reports (though not confirmed by Iranian authorities) of a cyberattack against the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) that is causing major disruptions in the country’s banking sector. //Not sure if the silence from Tehran is because it didn’t happen, or because they’re still trying to get a grip on it before making an announcement.
The governor of the CBI announced three new measures to support the country’s capital market, which involves financing listed companies as a way to promote their development. The measures include:
Guaranteeing approximately USD7.2 billion worth of bonds so companies can access more working capital;
Issuing EUR2 billion of foreign currency sukuk bonds to support companies in petrochemical and mining industries;
Granting EUR1.5 billion of foreign currency loans to companies with foreign exchange income in order to increase exports.
--
Iran displayed the Mohajer-10 — a domestically-made, long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) — at a Russian military trade show. Tehran has previously been accused of sending related models to Russia for use in their invasion of Ukraine.