Preview Newsletter
Dory 7/13/17
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Want to see North Korea? Head to Dandong, China
Jul 13, 2017 | CNN
By Derrick Chang
To catch a glimpse of the hermit state of North Korea most tourists journey to the heavily fortified demilitarized zone along the South Korean border. Another alternative is to view North Korea from its friendly neighbor, China. -
He ran North Korea’s secret money making operation. Now he lives in Virginia.
Jul 13, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Anna Fifield
American and multilateral efforts to sanction North Korea into submission won’t work because there are too many ways around them, Ri Jong Ho says. -
Int'l LNG bunkering port focus group expands with three more ports
Jul 13, 2017 | PortNews
To strengthen the network of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunker-ready ports and to bolster efforts towards enabling the uptake of LNG as marine fuel, the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, Port of Marseille Fos, and Port of Vancouver have joined the Port of Singapore and seven other organisations[1] to participate in an international LNG bunkering port focus group, the Maritime and Port Authority said in a media release. -
China trade with sanctions-struck North Korea up 10.5 percent in first half
Jul 13, 2017 | Reuters
By Fang Cheng and Ben Blanchard
China's trade with isolated North Korea rose more than 10 percent in the January-June period from a year earlier, a Chinese official said on Thursday, amid pressure from the United States for Beijing to pressurize its troublesome neighbor. -
China Says Imports From North Korea Fall as Sanctions Enforced
Jul 13, 2017 | Bloomberg
China is buying less from North Korea as it implements United Nations sanctions aimed at reining in the nuclear ambitions of Kim Jong Un, according to a customs official. -
Chinese imports from North Korea fall sharply, a sign that Beijing is cracking down?
Jul 13, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Anna Fifield
China’s imports from North Korea dropped sharply in the first half of this year, according to figures published Thursday that suggest Beijing is more serious about cracking down on Pyongyang than President Trump has recently claimed. -
Shippers have limited ways to protect against next cyber attack
Jul 12, 2017 | Journal of Commerce
By Hugh R. Morley
US shippers moving goods through the APM Terminals’ Elizabeth, New Jersey, facility are accustomed to delays caused by cargo surges and minor IT hiccups, but none of them expected what greeted them on the morning of June 27: a cyber attack against parent company Maersk Group that crippled the facility for three days and clogged operations for at least 11 more.
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Want to see North Korea? Head to Dandong, China
Jul 13, 2017 | CNN
By Derrick Chang
(CNN) — To catch a glimpse of the hermit state of North Korea most tourists journey to the heavily fortified demilitarized zone along the South Korean border. Another alternative is to view North Korea from its friendly neighbor, China.
Dandong, a riverside city in Northeast China's Liaoning province, offers great views of North Korea from across the Yalu River.
Water under the bridge Stonewalling the opposition
Sneaking a look at North Korea isn't the only attraction Dandong has to offer.
To catch a glimpse of Korean War history in Dandong, visit a bridge the Americans bombed or have a look at anti-American propaganda at the Museum of American Aggression, a Sino-Korean interpretation on the Korean War.
Dandong was an important frontier settlement in ancient China.
The easternmost section of the Great Wall of China here was constructed at Hu Shan to protect against Korean invaders during the late Ming and early Qing dynasty.
Today the Hu Shan Great Wall section overlooks Sinuiju, North Korea.
Using binoculars from the top of the wall, you can see for miles into North Korea, as well spot an air force base where a mysterious North Korean warplane took off before crashing in China.
Cold war footing
While it's risky to venture into North Korea even with the fenceless border here, you can take a leisurely boat ride on the small river straddling the Hushan Great Wall and North Korean border.
Visitors will often see North Korean soldiers and farmers going about their daily business.
The banks of the Yalu River could not be a better example of the contrast between Chinese-style capitalism and North Korean communism.
Stark contrast
Dandong's gleaming condominiums tower over the river, while fields and empty hills dominate the North Korean landscape.
On the Chinese side, tourists stroll along a boardwalk brimming with commercial activity. Rusty boats lay idle and small factories belch smoke on the North Korean side.
Dandong attracts many South Koreans interested in a look at their North Korean brethren.
Curious tourists can take pleasure boats or even speed boats that get very close to the banks of the North Korean side.
Just a stone's throw away
North Koreans often don't like being looked at like zoo animals and have been known to throw rocks at tourists in boats that get too close.
At dusk, Dandong lights up the skyline while the North Korean side remains eerily dark and quiet.
The bridge the Americans bombed during the Korean War is lit up while a newer Friendship bridge allows cross-border trade between North Korea and China.
North Korean fare
Dandong has a sizable population of ethnic Koreans who serve up the most authentic Korean food.
At dusk, restaurants break out small tables and plastic chairs for barbecues.
Dandong is famous for its street-side seafood BBQ. The favorites are fresh caught giant yellow clams and prawns.
Where to stay
The best view of North Korea is from the Crowne Plaza hotel located on the banks of the Yalu River on Binjiang Road.
For cheaper rooms, the Chinese business hotel chain Home Inns has three hotels within a ten-minute walk of the Yalu River.
How to get there
Flights are available from Dandong airport to most parts of the country .
From Beijing there's an overnight train (K27) to Dandong that takes about 13 hours.
Dandong can also be reached by bus from the seaside city of Dalian. The trip takes 4.5 hours. Buses depart from Victory Square in downtown Dalian.
Dandong is a pedestrian friendly.
Taxi is the most convenient way to the Hushan Great Wall.
http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/dandong-china-north-korea-gateway/
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He ran North Korea’s secret money making operation. Now he lives in Virginia.
Jul 13, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Anna Fifield
American and multilateral efforts to sanction North Korea into submission won’t work because there are too many ways around them, Ri Jong Ho says.
He should know.
For about three decades, Ri was a top moneymaker for the Kim regime, sending millions of dollars a year back to Pyongyang even as round after round of sanctions was imposed to try to punish North Korea for its nuclear defiance.
“We were never in pain or hurting in our trade business because of the sanctions. Instead, we conducted our first nuclear test in 2006,” Ri said in an interview near Tysons Corner.
The 59-year-old, whose job had been to raise money for the North Korean regime, and his family now live in Northern Virginia, having defected to South Korea at the end of 2014 and moved to the United States last year.
“I used to be sanctioned, as a North Korean who led trade at the front line, but I never felt any pain from the sanctions. The sanctions were perfunctory,” Ri said.
He described being able to send millions of U.S. dollars to North Korea simply by handing a bag of cash to the captain of a ship leaving from the Chinese port city of Dalian, where he was based, to the North Korean port of Nampo, or by giving it to someone to take on the train across the border.
In first the nine months of 2014 — he defected in October that year — Ri said he sent about $10 million to Pyongyang this way.
For more than two decades, the United States has been trying to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, alternating between inducements and punishments.
In both cases, American policy has relied on China, North Korea’s erstwhile patron, using its economic power over its cash-strapped neighbor. But Beijing’s implementation of sanctions, even those it backed through the United Nations, has been patchy at best. China’s overwhelming priority is ensuring stability in North Korea.
President Trump has repeatedly called on China to support his policy of putting “maximum pressure” on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear and missile programs.
Efforts have not changed North Korea’s behavior. This is partly because multilateral sanctions imposed through the United Nations must be watered down to avoid being vetoed by China or Russia, traditional backers of North Korea, and partly because other countries don’t implement the tougher but unilateral U.S. sanctions.
“Unless China, Russia and the United States cooperate fully to sanction North Korea, it will be impossible to hurt them,” Ri said.
China’s interest in North Korea is well known, but Russia’s role in supporting the former Soviet client state is often overlooked. Amid calls for China to limit oil exports to North Korea, Russia has dramatically increased the amount of oil it has sent — some reports suggest exports have quadrupled — to North Korea this year.
North Korea’s financial networks, moreover, are intentionally murky. The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned more and more North Koreans and North Korean companies by name to try to cut them off from the American financial system, but few, if any, have any exposure to the United States.
For this reason, Ri’s insights are widely sought after in Washington, where successive administrations have been trying to find North Korea’s pressure points.
Ri worked for three decades in Office 39, the Workers’ Party operation responsible for raising money for the North Korean leader. The office has long been associated with both legal trade and illicit activity, including counterfeiting dollars and drug smuggling.
Ri said he worked as president of a shipping company and was chairman of Korea Kumgang Group, a company that formed a venture with Sam Pa, a Chinese businessman, to start a taxi company in Pyongyang. Ri suppled a photo of him and Pa aboard a jet to Pyongyang.
He was awarded the title “hero of labor” in 2002 for his efforts, and said he lived the good life in Pyongyang, with a color TV and a car. “I was very loyal to Kim Jong Il, so I was rewarded by him,” he said. “I was rich.”
His last position was running the Dalian branch of Daeheung, a trading company involved in shipping, coal and seafood exports, and oil imports. The company was given targets to meet in terms of profits, he said, declining to go into details.
But in 2014, Ri grew increasingly disillusioned after Kim Jong Un suddenly denounced his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, as a “traitor for all ages” and had him executed at the end of 2013.
Jang had been leading economic cooperation efforts with China, and dozens of people who worked for him were also purged at the time, Ri said. He worried that his family would be next. They escaped to South Korea before moving to the United States, where his two children, now in their 20s, plan to go to college.
Experts said Ri’s arrival in the United States could be a boon for American efforts to crack down on North Korea.
“It’s always useful when a defector, especially one that knows the internal operations of Office 39 — and my assumption is that he knows the external operations too — can help us,” said Anthony Ruggiero, who worked on sanctions at Treasury and is now with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
The United States has been trying to understand how North Korea uses banks in China in particular to finance its activities. “I hope that the Treasury and some other organizations with ‘agency’ at the end of their name are talking to him,” Ruggiero said.
Ri said North Korea has repeatedly found ways to circumvent whatever sanctions are imposed on it.
“North Korea is a 100 percent state enterprise, so these companies just change their names the day after they’re sanctioned,” he said. “That way the company continues, but with a different name than the one on the sanctions list.”
Ri’s Chinese counterparts weren’t bothered, either, he said.
“My partners in China also want to make a profit, so they don't care much about sanctions,” he said. “When the Chinese government orders them to stop, they stop for a few days and then start up again.”
Growing impatient with Beijing, Washington is increasingly targeting Chinese companies that help North Korea with what are called “secondary sanctions.” At the end of last month, the Trump administration blacklisted the Bank of Dandong, located on the border between the two countries, for its dealings with North Korea.
But without knowing how to really hurt North Korea and teaming up to do it, it will be “impossible” to change Pyongyang’s calculus on the nuclear program, Ri said.
For that reason, the former money man advocates an approach that combines Trump’s “maximum pressure” with another idea that the president has at least flirted with: talks.
“I think there should be top-level talks between the U.S. and North Korea, so that they can both work together to solve the problem,” Ri said.
After last week’s intercontinental ballistic missile test and last month’s death of Otto Warmbier,the Ohio college student who returned from 17 months’ detention in North Korea in a coma, talks seem a long way off.
But Trump, a businessman who prides himself on being a master negotiator, has said he would be “honored” to meet Kim, whom he called a “smart cookie.”
At unofficial talks in Oslo in May, a North Korean delegation signaled to American representatives Kim’s interest in talking, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.
Previous diplomatic efforts to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons have failed, and there is a great deal of skepticism in Washington about negotiations.
But that shouldn’t stop the current administration trying, Ri said: “Like they say in politics, yesterday's enemy can be today’s friend.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/he-ran-north-koreas-secret-money-making-operation-now-he-lives-in-virginia/2017/07/12/4cb9a590-6584-11e7-94ab-5b1f0ff459df_story.html?utm_term=.cefd9e9e880e
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Int'l LNG bunkering port focus group expands with three more ports
Jul 13, 2017 | PortNews
To strengthen the network of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunker-ready ports and to bolster efforts towards enabling the uptake of LNG as marine fuel, the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, Port of Marseille Fos, and Port of Vancouver have joined the Port of Singapore and seven other organisations[1] to participate in an international LNG bunkering port focus group, the Maritime and Port Authority said in a media release.
The inclusion of Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan was formalised on July 10 through a signing ceremony held at the sideline of the 3rd Port Authorities’ Roundtable (PAR) organised by the Ningbo Municipal Port Administration Bureau. With this expansion, the network will comprise a total of eleven ports and maritime administrations across Asia, Europe and North America.
LNG Bunkering Port Focus Group
2 The focus group was first formed in 2014 by Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Antwerp Port Authority, Port of Rotterdam and Port of Zeebrugge. In 2016, Asian representation in the LNG bunkering focus group[2] increased with the joining of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan and Ulsan Port Authority, Republic of Korea. Through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Singapore on 5 October 2016, all members of the focus group committed to working together to deepen cooperation and information sharing in relation to LNG bunkering, to develop a network of LNG bunker-ready ports across the East and West and Trans-Pacific trade. The first meeting was held in April 2017 in Yokohama, Japan, where the focus group agreed to focus collaborative efforts on enabling the uptake of LNG as bunkers globally.
3 With growing interest to supply LNG as a marine fuel to meet future demands of the shipping industry, the focus group will be further expanded to include the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, Port of Marseille Fos and Port of Vancouver.
3rd Port Authorities’ Roundtable
4 Inaugurated by MPA in 2015, PAR remains a key platform for leaders of port authorities to come together to discuss key issues of mutual interests, exchange best practices and promote closer collaboration. The 3rd PAR is organised by the Ningbo Municipal Port Administration Bureau from 9 – 11 July 2017. This is the first time a Chinese port is organising PAR. The first and second PAR were organised by Singapore and Rotterdam in 2015 and 2016 respectively. PAR2017@Ningbo saw 14 organisations participating in the event including Port and Urban Projects Bureau, Kobe City Government, Port and Harbour Bureau, City of Yokohama, Port of Le Havre and Port of Dalian Authority who participated for the first time.
5 Topics of discussion at PAR2017@Ningbo included cooperation among ports to enhance cybersecurity responses, building sustainable ports for the future as well as integration of port resources to improve efficiency which comes at an opportune time to tackle emerging and on-going challenges faced by the maritime industry. In light of recent cybersecurity attacks, MPA proposed the formation of a “Port Authorities Focal Point Correspondence Network” comprising of PAR members to facilitate early reporting of maritime cybersecurity incidents to allow members to prepare and respond to imminent cyber attacks. This was well received by the participants at PAR2017@Ningbo.
6 Mr Andrew Tan, Chief Executive of MPA said, “The Port Authorities Roundtable, initiated by Singapore in 2015, is a useful high level platform to forge closer collaboration between ports based on like-minded interests. We are pleased that at this meeting, three more ports, including the first Chinese port, will be joining the LNG Bunkering Port Focus Group. We welcome Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, Port of Marseille Fos and Port of Vancouver to the network and look forward to working with them. We are confident that the inclusion of Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan will add further impetus to enable the uptake of LNG bunkering for the Far East-Europe and Intra-Asia trade routes for the future.”
7 Mr Michio Kikuchi, Director-General, Ports and Harbours Bureau Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Tourism, Japan said, "As the world’s largest LNG importing country and also as the world's leading maritime countries, we believe that Japan has a responsibility to promote LNG as a marine fuel in order to accelerate cleaner shipping. It goes without saying that expanding the network of LNG bunker-ready ports network is vital in that regard. We would like to extend a cordial welcome to the Port of Marseille Fos, the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan and the Port of Vancouver. We are confident that the participation of the Port of Vancouver will bring a significant effect on accelerating cleaner shipping for the Trans-Pacific Trade due to its strategic location."
8 Mr Cai Shenkang, General Manager, Zhejiang Provincial Seaport Investment and Operation Group and Ningbo-Zhoushan Port Group said, “We are very happy to join the LNG port focus group at the invitation of Singapore. Ningbo-Zhoushan Port looks forward to work closely with members of the MOU to promote the use of LNG as a marine fuel for global shipping. Through this group, we believe strongly that we can work together to address safety requirements imposed by international organisations for LNG bunkering and barriers faced by ocean-going vessels looking to use LNG as a fuel in the future.”
9 Mr. Duncan Wilson, VP Corporate Social Responsibility, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) said "We are pleased to be invited by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Ports and Harbours Bureau, to join this Memorandum of Understanding. Together with other signatories, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is committed to working together to deepen cooperation and information sharing in relation to LNG bunkering, and to develop a network of LNG bunker-ready ports.http://en.portnews.ru/news/242139/
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China trade with sanctions-struck North Korea up 10.5 percent in first half
Jul 13, 2017 | Reuters
By Fang Cheng and Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's trade with isolated North Korea rose more than 10 percent in the January-June period from a year earlier, a Chinese official said on Thursday, amid pressure from the United States for Beijing to pressurize its troublesome neighbor.
Last week U.S. President Donald Trump denounced China's trade with North Korea, saying it had grown almost 40 percent in the first quarter, and cast doubt on whether Beijing was helping to counter the threat from North Korea.
China has repeatedly said it is fully enforcing United Nations sanctions on nuclear-armed North Korea and there is nothing wrong with what it terms "normal" trade with Pyongyang, referring to areas not covered by sanctions.
Chinese customs spokesman Huang Songping told a briefing on China's overall trade figures that total trade with North Korea expanded by 10.5 percent to $2.55 billion in the first six months of the year.
While China's imports from North Korea dropped 13.2 percent to $880 million in the period from January to June, exports to North Korea rose 29.1 percent to $1.67 billion, he said.
The exports were largely driven by textile products and other traditional labor-intensive goods not included on the United Nations embargo list, Huang added.
"As neighbors, China and North Korea maintain normal business and trade exchanges," he said, adding that goods for ordinary people and those used for humanitarian reasons are not subject to sanctions.
Overall trade growth with North Korea slowed in June, compared with previous second-quarter months.
Trade in dollar terms with North Korea rose about 12 percent in June from a month earlier to $499 million, according to Reuters calculations based on previously released data.
The calculations do not reflect revisions to earlier figures that may not have been announced.
In May, trade with North Korea gained 14.5 percent from April to $443.5 million, previously released customs data show.Enforcing Resolutions
Numbers showing an increase are not evidence that China is failing to enforce U.N. resolutions, with imports from North Korea falling every month since March, Huang added.
China suspended imports of North Korean coal in February, while imports of iron ore accord with relevant U.N. resolutions, he said.
"China customs have all along fully, accurately, conscientiously and strictly enforced relevant Security Council resolutions."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said U.N. resolutions did not cover iron and iron ore for civilian purposes, warning against confusion over U.N. sanctions being viewed as comprehensive sanctions on North Korea.
"For China to maintain normal economic relations with North Korea does not violate U.N. resolutions," he told a daily news briefing.
Adding to the potential for further U.S.-China trade friction, China had a $25.4-billion trade surplus with the United States in June, up from $22.0 billion in May, customs data showed. The surplus with the United States was China's largest since October 2015.
While China has been angered by North Korea's repeated nuclear and missile tests, it also blames the United States and South Korea for worsening tension with their military exercises and not doing enough to get talks back on track, as Beijing has proposed.
Though Trump took a more conciliatory tone on the North Korea issue and China's role at a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday, Beijing has begun taking a harder rhetorical line with Washington in the past few days.
China's Foreign Ministry this week urged a halt to what it called the "China responsibility theory" on North Korea, saying all parties needed to pull their weight.
Trade between China and North Korea has declined in both 2015 and 2016, a senior government-backed academic said in a front-page comment in the overseas edition of the official People's Daily on Wednesday.
"Certain countries have no right to make wanton criticisms of China," wrote Su Xiaohui of the Foreign Ministry think-tank, the China Institute of International Studies.
An "unexpected" jump in first-quarter trade between China and North Korea masked a declining trend, the state-run Global Times newspaper said last week.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-rights-domestic-idUSKBN19Y0EJ
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China Says Imports From North Korea Fall as Sanctions Enforced
Jul 13, 2017 | Bloomberg
Exports rise nearly 30 percent, driven by textiles, data show
Total first half trade increases to $2.55 billion: Customs
China is buying less from North Korea as it implements United Nations sanctions aimed at reining in the nuclear ambitions of Kim Jong Un, according to a customs official.
Imports fell 13.2 percent to $880 million in the six months to June 30 from the same period a year earlier, the customs bureau said Thursday.
“China has always been strictly abiding by the UN Security Council resolutions and related laws to impose sanctions on North Korea,” Huang Songping, spokesman for the General Administration of Customs, said at a briefing in Beijing.
China is under pressure from the U.S. and others to show it is complying with UN sanctions designed to put an economic squeeze on Kim’s weapons programs.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on July 5 that China hadn’t done enough to pressure its neighbor, after Pyongyang successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile. Still, after meeting with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit on July 8, Trump tweeted they’d had had an “excellent” meeting on trade and North Korea.
To read about the options for dealing with North Korea, click here
China’s exports to North Korea rose 29.1 percent in the first half of 2017, driven by consumer goods such as textiles that aren’t on the sanctions list, Huang said. Total trade increased 10.5 percent to $2.55 billion during the period.
“China has been constantly executing the UN Security Council resolution in a comprehensive, precise, earnest and strict way,” Huang said. Imports have fallen since March, when they declined 36.5 percent, he said. They slid 41.6 percent in April, 31.6 percent in May and 28.9 percent in June.
China’s imports of coal totaled 2.68 million tons in the first half of the year, down 74.5 percent from the previous year. Those imports all came before Feb. 18, an illustration of how China has enforced sanctions, Huang said.
The UN sanctions allow trade in items considered “exclusively for livelihood purposes.” Since the July 4 ballistic missile test, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has been pushing for fresh measures that may include further curbs on China’s trade with North Korea.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said China’s cooperation on North Korea was "uneven" when he spoke to lawmakers in mid-June, saying U.S. officials were concerned about actions by both the government and other entities in China.
On June 30, the U.S. took steps to penalize a Chinese bank, a Chinese shipping company and two Chinese citizens it claimed worked to help North Korea evade sanctions.
— With assistance by Miao Han, and David Tweed
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-13/china-says-imports-from-north-korea-fall-as-sanctions-enforced
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Chinese imports from North Korea fall sharply, a sign that Beijing is cracking down?
Jul 13, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Anna Fifield
TOKYO — China’s imports from North Korea dropped sharply in the first half of this year, according to figures published Thursday that suggest Beijing is more serious about cracking down on Pyongyang than President Trump has recently claimed.
The Trump administration has been calling on Beijing to use its economic leverage over its errant neighbor to make the Kim regime stop firing off missiles and bellicose threats. But, after North Korea launched a missile technically capable of reaching the United States last week, Trump suggested he’d given up on China.
Thursday’s figures suggest a different picture, although they also showed significant growth in overall bilateral trade in the first six months of the year thanks to a 29 percent spike in Chinese exports to North Korea.
The value of imports from North Korea fell to $880 million in the six months to June, down 13 percent from a year earlier, according to the figures released by the Customs office.
Notably, China’s coal imports from North Korea dropped precipitously, with only 2.7 million tons being shipped in the first half of 2017, down 75 percent from 2016.
This suggests that China has been making good on its February decision to suspend coal imports from North Korea, potentially cutting off a major financial lifeline for Pyongyang, although analysts caution that Chinese figures should be viewed with some skepticism as they are sometimes manipulated for political purposes.
About 90 percent of North Korea’s exports go to China, and coal has been the single-biggest export item. But there has been skepticism about the ban, with coal ships and train cars being seen going back and forth between the two countries.
Furthermore, as coal exports have reportedly fallen, shipments of iron ore have spiked. Previous releases of Chinese customs data showed that China bought the same amount of iron ore in the first five months of this year as it did in all of last year.
Thursday’s figures showed that total trade between the two countries is still growing, rising 10 percent in the first six months of this year compared with 2016 because Chinese exports to North Korea rose by 29 percent, or $1.67 billion, over the same period.
Beijing was quick to pour cold water on the suggestion that the overall rise in trade suggested it was not complying with U.N. Security Council resolutions designed to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear tests and missile launches.
The growth bilateral trade “should not be used as basis for questioning China’s solemn attitude towards the implementation of the Security Council’s resolutions,” Huang Songping, a spokesman for Chinese Customs, told reporters in Beijing.
Monthly figures were more representative of the trend and China’s imports from North Korea had been “falling sharply for four consecutive months since March,” he said, including by 36 percent in March and 42 percent in April.
“The trade growth between China and North Korea in the first half of the year was mainly driven by exports,” Huang said, adding that the exports were mainly labor-intensive products like textiles, which are not banned under U.N. resolutions.
Asked about the surge in China’s imports of North Korean iron ore and in China’s ethanol exports to North Korea in recent months, Huang said that trade with North Korea for civilian use was allowed despite the sanctions.
“We have carried out the U.N. resolution strictly,” Huang said. “If this is for civilian use and not banned, after we have verified that they are for civilian use, we can still trade.”
Huang said the price fluctuation of commodities could also potentially boost the trade figure as measured by value.
As the United States has searched for ways to punish North Korea for its repeated defiance of international bans on it testing nuclear weapons and launching ballistic missiles, it has repeatedly turned to China.
Trump has urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to use China’s economic leverage over North Korea but, after suggesting that Beijing was not acting to punish Pyongyang, Trump last week suggested he’d given up on Xi.
“Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter,” Trump tweetedthe day after North Korea launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile. “So much for China working with us — but we had to give it a try!”
Xi has made no secret of his disdain for Kim Jong Un and is clearly frustrated at North Korea’s continued weapons testing and actions like the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the leader’s half brother who had been protected by China.
But many North Korea analysts suggest China will not take any action that could seriously undermine the regime because Beijing’s top priority is stability. It does not want a flood of millions of hungry refugees coming over its northeast border if the regime collapses, and it certainly does not want the 28,000 American troops currently stationed in South Korea to be able to move all the way up the peninsula to the border with China.
Luna Lin in Beijing contributed to this report.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/chinese-imports-from-north-korea-fall-sharply-a-sign-that-beijing-is-cracking-down/2017/07/13/1ff1f49a-6787-11e7-83d7-7a628c56bde7_story.html?utm_term=.f6a13c274a03
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Shippers have limited ways to protect against next cyber attack
Jul 12, 2017 | Journal of Commerce
By Hugh R. Morley
US shippers moving goods through the APM Terminals’ Elizabeth, New Jersey, facility are accustomed to delays caused by cargo surges and minor IT hiccups, but none of them expected what greeted them on the morning of June 27: a cyber attack against parent company Maersk Group that crippled the facility for three days and clogged operations for at least 11 more.
Maersk had little time to fend off the attack, triggered by a destructive virus known as Not Petya, which crippled online cargo booking and forced staff to use personal email accounts and manual processes amid the shutdown and restarting of all IT communications systems.
Richard Carthas, senior director of operations for the Elizabeth terminal, recalls reading a company email warning of a potential attack under way that morning. “Five or 10 minutes after that, our gate computers literally shut down,” he said.
The cyber event, a global attack that computer security firm Kaspersky Lab said hit an estimated 2,000 systems in Europe and North America — including Russian oil giant Rosneft, chemical giant Merck, as well as Maersk Group and its Maersk Line container shipping division, APMT, and forwarding unit Damco — not only raises questions about the strength of container lines, marine terminals, and ports’ defenses and ability to respond when hacked, but also what shippers can do to determine if their carriers are secure and can respond appropriately and quickly if attacked. Their options are limited, but they do have some avenues to reduce risk, according to industry analysts.
“We know that importers are getting hit all the time. We know that exporters are getting hit all the time. And we know that the service providers are getting hit all the time,” said Susan Kohn Ross, a California attorney who specializes in cyber security and trade cases. “But this is really the first time that it has been this dramatic a situation.”
Other than avoiding “overreliance on one particular carrier or vendor,” there are few steps a shipper can take to protect its supply chain, added Donald A. Pisano, president of Jersey City, New Jersey-based American Coffee Corp.
Pisano, whose company uses an outsourced IT system, said he had discussions with the company’s provider about cyber security even before the Maersk incident. Other shippers are now more open to addressing such issues, he added.
“The recent attacks have certainly caused everyone to look for enhancements in their IT security protocols and various tools available to protect their own networks, along with a willingness to spend more for that necessary level of protection,” Pisano said
However, the key may be personal vigilance, he added. “All it takes is a single careless act or the opening of an infected attachment to wreak havoc on any organization,” Pisano said. “There has to be increased controls imposed on everyone at every level, which, while bringing limitations, will avoid catastrophic disruptions like we have seen suffered by our friends at Maersk.”
Although some carriers already had plans in place, and now realize they have to tighten them, others have much more work to do, having done little in the past, analysts said. The attack on Maersk could be the jolt that shakes up the industry and forces it to recognize the potential threats from cyber attacks, and how far the impact of such an attack would ripple through different industry sectors, Ross said.
Maritime analyst SeaIntel underscored the shipping industry’s vulnerability in a July report that concluded that 44 percent of the top 50 carriers have weak cyber security. The problems range from security patches that were not updated in a timely fashion, password systems that allowed weak or easily cracked passwords to be used, and a failure to use encrypted web browser formats — all of which provide relatively threadbare protection from potential hackers, the report said.
SeaIntel also found one terminal using a computer server running on a 14-year-old Windows version that could be entered using a tool downloaded from the internet, allowing a hacker to “take over this server straight away.”
“The individual weaknesses found might not be severe in themselves,” said Lars Jensen, CEO of SeaIntelligence Consulting, co-founder and CEO of cyber security firm CyberKeel, and author of the report. “But collectively [they] indicate an industry with a disturbingly low level of cyber security.”
Given the range of disruptions facing shippers — including strikes, typhoons, and port closures — the fallout from a Maersk-type attack is “more of a nuisance than a catastrophic event,” Jensen said. Regardless, shippers first have to focus on securing their own computer systems against a cyber attack, and then assess how they would be affected if a partner company suffered an attack, he said.
“A shipper cannot really do anything to prevent a carrier being attacked,” he said, and it is difficult to assess from the outside how vulnerable a carrier, or other company it works with, is to an attack. “This comes down to contingency planning. How resilient is their supply chain when faced with disruptions? And in this respect, it is an aspect they need to have planned.”
One of the most unsettling elements of the attack is that Maersk, in an industry that has been slow to embrace technology, has been at the forefront of using technology to transform its business, and was prepared for the dark side of digitalization more than most. Moreover, it is not clear whether Maersk was the intended target, or merely collateral damage in an attack aimed elsewhere, suggesting that such attacks in the future could hit companies from any sector of the industry
Jensen said the delay during recovery is inherent in the way a cyber attack victim recovers from an incident.
“When you have been subjected to such a big successful attack, you shut everything down — literally everything
— servers, laptops, phone systems,” he said. “You then need to gradually reinstall software on all computers and get the back-end systems up and running again. This is a complex task, which in any case will take time. But clearly the more prepared you are for such an eventuality, the faster you can do it.”
No system can provide 100 percent security from a virus, Jensen said. Computer security is particularly difficult in the maritime industry because companies have multiple offices worldwide and often rely on third parties that all require access to the computer system, Jensen said.
“This makes it difficult to get a consistent external perimeter in the cyber landscape,” he said.
In Maersk’s case, the fact that the virus “spread not only globally but also across business units into terminals and logistics,” raises questions that “cyber security cannot have been at its highest level,” Jensen said. Systems designed to prevent cyber attacks are generally divided into different sectors, with access from one part into another prevented unless the password is used, he said.
“It does appear conspicuous that a carrier, which is at the forefront of digitization and is to some degree driving the industry toward automation, has such a hard time getting its most automated processes back up and running,” Jensen said.
How much the Maersk lesson will be absorbed, if at all, by the industry, is unclear. Even before the Maersk attack, there had been enough hacking cases and cyber attacks, in all industries, for the potential threat to the maritime industry to be understandable, Ross said. A US Coast Guard report on 'Cyber Strategy' two years ago, for example, said the number of cyber incidents of all kinds reported by government agencies had increased 60 percent, to 67,168 in 2014, from 41,776 five years earlier.
Few companies, including those in the container shipping sector, disclose successful hacks, dampening efforts to curtail and for others to realize the severity of risk. Among the publicized attacks was a 2011 cyber attack against Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, causing the state-owned carrier to lose some cargo. Another publicized attack that started in June the same year involved drug traffickers recruiting hackers to penetrate computers at the Port of Antwerp, allowing the traffickers to move illegal goods through the port and then delete any evidence the cargo was there — for two years. Both attacks got plenty of attention, though little industry response, Ross said.
You talk to most of the security personnel [and] it’s not a question of whether you are going to be hacked, [but] a question of when. The trick is to be as prepared as you can,” she said. “From the steamship perspective, it’s probably not something that’s new. But it’s probably not something they have spent a lot of time focusing on.”
The recent attack came as a wave of startups offering a variety of products are looking to use digital technology to transform an industry that some analysts say has been slow to embrace technology and leave behind traditional methods of doing business. The fallout from the attack could affect the wave’s progress.
In one sense, the attack could convince less technologically advanced companies in the industry to shy away from technology. It also could make it easier for companies to protect themselves from attack because they can build cyber security into a new technology system from scratch rather than having to adapt an existing system
Flexport, a digital freight forwarder, sought to reassure customers with a post by CEO Ryan Petersen on the company’s blog a day after the attack that outlined the company’s own cyber security efforts and highlighted the interconnected nature of the industry, and the complexity of the problem.
“Whatever security measures Flexport puts in place to safeguard our own data, our partners will always be susceptible to data breaches,” he wrote. “To limit risks and protect our clients’ sensitive information, we don’t share any data with carriers or freight partners except what those parties need to know in order to move our shipments.”
The New York Shipping Exchange (NYSHEX), which operates a booking system that seeks to combat the problem of cargo no-shows and rolled cargo, said it had cyber security measures in place before the attack. They included conducting penetration tests and using “multiple layers of authentication for users accessing the exchange.”
In addition, “all data flowing to and from the exchange is encrypted,” CEO Gordon Downes said, adding that the company has received inquiries from several beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) and carriers about the strength of NYSHEX’s cyber security protection.
“I think the BCOs should definitely be asking their providers about their cyber security programs,” he said. “Those that don’t have strong answers to the questions should be treated with caution.
http://www.joc.com/technology/shippers-have-limited-options-protect-against-next-cyber-attack_20170712.html
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