GREEK RESPONSE TO IMPLEMENTATION OF UNSCR 1874 DEMARCHE

UNCLAS ATHENS 001179 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DESK PASS TO STATE/ISN DESK PASS TO STATE/T DESK PASS TO STATE/EAP DESK PASS TO TREASURY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EFIN PARM PREL KNNP GR SUBJECT: GREEK RESPONSE TO IMPLEMENTATION OF UNSCR 1874 DEMARCHE REF: 09 STATE 66250; 09 STATE 65483 ¶1. (SBU) On June 29, POL officers delivered reftel points regarding the implementation of UNSCR 1874's financial and trade provisions and the U.S. Advisory on North Korea to Loukas Tsokos and several other representatives of the MFA's Office for UN and International Organizations, Disarmament Issues, and Proliferation Issues (D1). On July 1, A/ECON Counselor delivered the same points to Ioannis Sidiropoulos, Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance; Ioannis Papadakis, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Greece (BG); and Panagiotis Kyriakopoulos, Director of Monetary Policy of Banks of the Bank of Greece. ¶2. (SBU) The MFA representatives expressed support for UNSCR 1874 and stated that directives have already been passed along to the Mercantile Marine who carries out cargo searches and seizures. GoG representatives also expressed intent to pass along information from the U.S. Treasury advisory to financial institutions, including the Bank of Greece. Papadakis indicated that the BG (Greece's central bank) would pass the advisory on to financial institutions under its supervision, but that BG had no substantive reply at this time. ¶3. (SBU) The MFA interlocutors stated that immediately upon receipt o f UNSCR 1874, the GoG adopted provisions implementing UNSCR 1874. According to Greek law, these measures will be automatically incorporated into national legislation within approximately 2-3 months. Our MFA contacts indicated UNSCR 1874 is on the agenda for the next EU Political Directors meeting and is a top priority for the EU. They estimated that the EU would formally approve the guidelines by September or October. Officials did not believe U.S. assistance would be required as GoG already has strong port security procedures in place. ¶4. (SBU) The MFA contacts stated that North Korean ships transit Greek ports very infrequently. North Korean cargo was detained in 2007 following an intelligence tip from French authorities. The ship carrying the prohibited cargo was under French operation and had sailed from Syria. The investigation into this specific case is still ongoing. Officials noted that when suspicious cargo is held in Greece, the process for releasing it can take 1 - 1.5 years. They also noted that they have not had any requests or cases of bunkering outside Greek ports but would flag this potential issue for the appropriate authorities and encourage vigilance. ¶5. (SBU) Comment: GoG officials were very cooperative on this issue and seemed to place it as a high priority. They stressed the importance of intelligence sharing and specifically inquired about possible intelligence gathered from South Korea. Officials were also curious as to responses of other countries to UNSCR 1874. End Comment. SPECKHARD