Foreign
[The Mysterious Man Runs Kim Family Pipeline]
The Un Panel of Experts, the enforcement organization of the United Nations (UN) sanctions on the DPRK, ended its term of duty on April 30, 2024. It is due to a veto cast by Russia, one of the P5 members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), on the term extension of the UN Panel of Experts.
The UN Panel of Experts has been in operation since 2009 in accordance with the UNSC resolution to set up a special body for keeping Pyongyang under UNSC sanctions. One of the main missions of the UN Panel of Experts was to pressure the DPRK to stop the development of all nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Before the official end of its duties, the Panel of Experts released a “final report” that the DPRK violated UN sanctions 112 times in the last 12 months. Among them, the report introduced a DPRK national named Nam Chol Ung, who is responsible for running underground businesses abroad.
According to the report, Nam Chol Ung is officer of the Central Spy Agency, named Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), one of the main intelligence agencies in the DPRK, with a key position as the chief of RGB stations in China and Southeast Asia.
The RGB is a highly importance agency among several intelligence agencies in the DPRK. The RGB conducts underground businesses as a ‘key engine’ to maintain the power of the current supreme leader Kim Jong Un and his family. There is also ‘evidence linkage’ that the RGB is related to the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Un’s half-brother, in Malaysia in 2017.
Some of the content in the final report provides more information about the RGB’s business operations abroad. All business operations that Nam Chol Ung has conducted overseas is clearly illegal in accordance with UNSC resolution 2270. Nam Chol Ung has carried out his underground businesses in many countries of Southeast Asia, one of which is Thailand.
In order to evade UNSC sanctions and inspections by other government agencies, Nam Chol Ung has run offices in Thailand and Laos. These offices were usually registered in the name of a third country national.
DPRK nationals are not allowed to work abroad due to concerns of the international community that those revenues generated by NK overseas workers will be directly sent to the DPRK regime. This means that the revenue will never fall into the hands of the DPRK citizens.
Nam Chol Ung used fake documents to engage in trade. The objective was to smuggle goods and raw materials into the DPRK, especially fuel and raw materials required for the regime’s weapons development programs. Also, he has smuggled a variety of luxury goods to support the luxurious lifestyle of the Kim family and the ruling class in the DPRK, contrary to the harsh living conditions of the populace, which still suffer from poverty. The report also mentioned that Nam Chol Ung smuggled oil through one company from Thailand in May 2023.
All of Nam Chol Ung’s underground businesses are illegal at both home and abroad, and there is a high risk of arrest at any time. However, he is willing to do such sanctions violating activities because of the Kim family’s reward of allowing him to live an elite lifestyle in the DPRK society.
The most eye-catching part is the son of Nam’s family. Nam Chol Ung’s son has a work experience at a UN organization as an intern. And now, he is trying to get a full-time employment at a UN organization.
No matter how intelligent and talented Nam’s son may be, if the UN hires him, it will have to explain the ‘appropriateness’ of hiring a person related to the illegal activities of the DPRK regime, especially when the UN has continued to stress the need to put the DPRK under utmost pressure.
Also, Nam Chol Ung’s wife currently resides in China and is responsible for managing all of Nam Chol Ung’s assets. However, China continues to refuse to officially comment on the matter.
According to the report, name Chol Ung established several ‘paper companies’ in Dalian, China, to carry out illegal trade activities, such as providing temporary storage for goods imported from third countries before being transported to the DPRK. The DPRK also uses money from the fund generated by Lazarus, a cyber-hacking group of the regime.
The report does not especially focus on Nam Chol Ung, but explains the RGB’s methods of conducting underground businesses abroad by deploying RGB agents like Nam Chol Ung. Therefore, the Panel of Experts recommended to designate Nam Chol Ung and Lazarus for sanctions.
Nam Chol Ung has already left Thailand. However, when the UN Panel of Experts discloses information about Nam and other affiliated individuals’ illegal activities carried out in many countries around the world, this report should serve as a case study and send a serious warning to the relevant authorities of each country about whether to allow Nam Chol Ung to enter the country and how the international community should take action against him. End.
Israeli Businessman Gil Birger transferred funds from a Qatari lobbyist to a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s media team, Eli Feldstein, Birger admitted in recordings published by KAN’s Reshet Bet on Wednesday.
According to the recordings, the lobbyist, Jay Footlik, requested that Briger assist in transferring the funds to Feldstein for VAT purposes. The recordings confirm a report on Tuesday evening by Channel 13’s Baruch Kara.
According to Kara, Feldstein ceased receiving his salary from the prime minister’s office in April 2024 after failing a security background check. However, he continued working for the prime minister until October 2024, when he was arrested on charges of leaking a classified document to the German newspaper Bild on behalf of Netanyahu in order to relieve public outcry over the Hamas killing of six hostages in Rafah due to IDF proximity.
According to Kara, Feldstein’s salary was effectively paid by the Qatari government during that period while at the same time working alongside the prime minister, serving primarily as his liaison to military reporters.
Feldstein’s attorneys respond
Feldstein’s attorneys, Oded Savorai and Sivan Hauzman stated in response to the recordings, “Since a comprehensive gag order has been issued on all details of the investigation known as ‘Qatargate’—and Reshet Bet would not have violated the order—it is clear that Feldstein is not a suspect in the case, and not without reason. As we have claimed from the moment the allegations were first raised, Feldstein has never worked for Qatar, never transferred information to Qatar, and never received money from Qatar. Feldstein worked for the Prime Minister’s Office, and all his activities on political and security matters were conducted solely on behalf of and for the Prime Minister.'”
The Democrats chairman Yair Golan commented on the report in a post on X/Twitter. “The evidence that Qatari money—the same money that funded the October massacre—was used to pay Netanyahu’s advisors is an earthquake. This is not a failure; it is a suspected betrayal of the state,” he noted.
“The corrupt ties between Netanyahu and Qatar have led us to today’s harsh reality: a prolonged war, submission to foreign interests, and a situation in which Hamas still controls Gaza and tortures our brothers in captivity,” he added.
Following Feldstein’s arrest in October, the prime minister’s office initially claimed it had had no connection to him. The prime minister however later admitted that Feldstein had worked closely alongside him, and even argued that the investigation of Feldstein was part of an attempt to remove him from power.
More than 90% of homes in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, says the UN
Talks to extend the Gaza ceasefire have failed to reach an agreement, a Palestinian official has told the BBC, as the US accused Hamas of making “entirely impractical” demands at meetings in Qatar.
Negotiators have been trying to find a way forward after the first phase of the temporary truce ended on 1 March.
The US proposed to extend the first phase until mid-April, including a further exchange of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
But the unnamed Palestinian official said Israel and Hamas disagreed over key aspects of the deal set out by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff at the indirect talks.
Israel is yet to comment, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he would receive a report from Israel’s negotiating team later on Saturday.
The White House accused Hamas of making “entirely impractical” demands in its response to Witkoff’s proposal.
It would extend the ceasefire into April but delay the negotiation of a permanent end to the war.
A statement from Witkoff’s office and the US National Security Council on Friday said: “Hamas is making a very bad bet that time is on its side. It is not.”
“Hamas is well aware of the deadline, and should know that we will respond accordingly if that deadline passes.”
A Hamas statement seen by the BBC said negotiations had broken down.
Netanyahu’s office had earlier said Israel accepted the US proposal.
It said Hamas remained “firm in its refusal and has not budged a millimetre,” accusing the group of “manipulation and psychological warfare”.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal involving three stages in January, after 15 months of war.
In the first stage, Hamas returned 25 living Israeli hostages, the remains of eight others, and five living Thai hostages. Israel released about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.
The deal says stage two will include the remaining living hostages in Gaza exchanged for more Palestinian prisoners.
But both sides currently disagree on the number of hostages due to be released next.
They also disagree on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, which the original deal states should be happening by now.
Israel resists this point, while Hamas insists it should happen.
Earlier in March, Israel blocked aid shipments to Gaza and then cut electricity, saying it aimed to put pressure on Hamas.
It is believed that Hamas is still holding up to 24 living hostages in Gaza and the remains of 35 others.
As indirect talks continued on Friday, the group said in a statement it was ready to release the last living Israeli-American hostage it is known to be holding.
Edan Alexander, 21, was serving as an Israeli soldier close to Gaza when he was taken.
Under the terms of the original ceasefire agreement, it was expected that he would have been among the last hostages to be released.
The group also said it would hand over the remains of four other dual nationals captured during the 7 October 2023 attacks.
It did not give further details or make clear what it would demand in return.
Witkoff dismissed the offer, saying Hamas was trying to appear flexible in public while being impractical in private.
The attacks led by Hamas on 7 October 2023 killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, with 251 taken hostage.
The assault triggered an Israeli military offensive that has since killed more than 48,520 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry which are used by the UN and others.
Most of Gaza’s 2.1 million population has been displaced multiple times.
An estimated 70% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed, healthcare, water, and sanitation systems have collapsed and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.
Pro-Palestinian accounts later tried to share the Israeli man’s whereabouts.
Israeli national Tamir Ohayon was spat at and harassed by two local women while visiting Dublin for a business trip, he shared on Instagram with a video of the interaction.
“My heart is truly broken THIS is Ireland in 2025,” Ohayon shared. “During my business trip to Dublin, me and my co-worker were assaulted by an organized group of girls for simply being Israelis.”
Antisemitism is at a record high. We’re keeping our eyes on it >>
Ohayon claimed that before the filming began, one of the girls approached him and shared the information she had collected on him – including the hotel he was staying at.
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