Mick Hartley

Despite their intransigence over the question of returning North Korean defectors, there are signs that the Chinese can be persuaded to act against their Pyongyang ally. Last week it was reported that they'd arrested a North Korean head of a local trading company for smuggling military supplies – including materials that could be used for nuclear development – inside shipments of apple boxes. Now, we hear, they're widening their investigations:

Chinese authorities are preventing North Korean trading company representatives, suspected of being complicit in the sale of materials related to the development of nuclear weapons and missiles in North Korea, from leaving the country.

The development follows the arrest of owner and founder of Hongxiang Industrial Development based in the border city of Dandong, Ma Xiaohong, who has been under investigation for a number of weeks.

By conducting a thorough investigation and resolving all lingering suspicions, the Chinese authorities are attempting to avoid accusations from the international community that they have been complicit in violations of United Nations Security Council Resolution sanctions against the North.

“Most of the companies that achieve success through North Korea-China trade have some sort of relationship with Liaoning Hongxiang’s President, Ma Xiaohong. The Chinese government is conducting investigations on North Korean executives with connections to these firms. As a result, they are being blocked from exiting the country for the time being,” a source close to North Korean affairs in China told Daily NK.

“Ms. Ma was able to engage in black market dealings of nuclear munitions materials by using large proxy companies. Without the support of these companies, the sales would not have been feasible. Munitions firms operating under the proxy companies sold the materials to North Korean representatives in China, who then attempted to return to North Korea. Their exit, however, was blocked.”

According to the source, Chinese judicial authorities first learned that materials in violation of various UN sanctions were being smuggled into North Korea years ago. The source indicated that they even quietly approached President Ma in the past. Now things have been taken to a more serious level, as the authorities have summoned Ma’s suspected co-conspirators from other companies in Dandong and Shenyang.

Authorities are focusing the investigation on a number of large proxy companies in Dandong that are suspected of packaging and exporting materials involved in the development of nuclear weapons. If the accusations are true, then it follows that certain North Korean trading companies were operating in direct violation of international law.

More from South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo:

Chinese authorities have begun investigating executives of the Dandong branch of North Korea’s Kwangson Banking Corporation, along with other North Korean employees residing in China and Chinese trade-related officials, according to sources.

“The Dandong branch of Kwangson Bank in March was pinpointed as an entity to be closed down under the UN Security Council Resolution 2270 but until recently moved offices and continued to secretly operate without a signboard,” one source well-informed on North Korea affairs told the JoongAng Ilbo on Saturday. “The head of the branch, Ri Il-ho, temporarily returned to North Korea, so the deputy executive is being investigated. “
It was revealed last week that Chinese authorities began a probe into the Dandong-based trading conglomerate Liaoning Hongxiang Group, which has been accused of illicit trade activities with North Korea that may support its nuclear weapons program.

The Korean Kwangson Banking Corporation (KKBC) is an affiliate of North Korea’s state-run Foreign Trade Bank, the country’s primary foreign exchange bank. It was designated by the U.S. Treasury in 2009 for financing entities supplying dual-use equipment to Pyongyang.

KKBC was also listed as a target of sanctions under the UN Security Council Resolution 2270 implemented unanimously in March after Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test.

Kwangson’s Dandong branch was said to have operated on the 13th floor of a building also occupied by Hongxiang Group in Dandong, Liaoning Province, in northeastern China.

Chinese authorities, upon communication with U.S. officials, were revealed to have begun a probe into Hongxiang Group, a Dandong-based Chinese trading conglomerate that is suspected of having shipped to North Korea “dual-use” materials, which can have both civilian and nuclear-weapons development uses.

The company’s chairwoman, Ma Xiaohong, was arrested last month.

“A Dandong customs official, as well as other Dandong city officials who were charged with granting favors to Hongxiang’s Ma, are also being investigated in a group,” according to a Chinese source knowledgeable about relations between Beijing and Pyongyang. “There are over 20 of them being investigated.”

Chairwoman Ma’s family members, including three siblings that also oversaw Hongxiang Group affairs, were also investigated by authorities.

She sounds quite the cigar-chewing female crime boss, this Ma Xiaohong. With the moniker to match.

Meanwhile, with all these UN sanctions being broken by the North Koreans, and all the UN Security Council resolutions concerning North Korea (admittedly a drop in the ocean compared to Security Council resolutions concerning Israel), the obvious question arises – why hasn't North Korea been kicked out of the UN altogether?