NORTH KOREA TAEPO-DONG 2 LAUNCH: GERMAN RESPONSE

S E C R E T BERLIN 000417 E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/06/2019 TAGS: PREL PARM KN KNNP GM SUBJECT: NORTH KOREA TAEPO-DONG 2 LAUNCH: GERMAN RESPONSE REF: STATE 33031 Classified By: Minister Counselor for Political Affairs Jeff Rathke. R easons 1.4 (B) & (D). ¶1. (S) PolOff delivered reftel points to Nikolai von Schoepff, head of the Nuclear Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Division at the German MFA, and Hans Koeppel, who directly follows the North Korea issue, on April ¶6. Both stated that the GoG shares U.S. concerns about the incident and hoped for a strong action from the UN Security Council and the members of the Six Party Talks. Koeppel expressed concern about China and Russia's "weak" reaction to the launch, which has "worried" many North Korea watchers within the German government. Von Schoepff noted that Berlin had just received a cable from Germany's mission in Pyongyang, which mentioned that there were apparently Iranian observers present at the launch site in North Korea. Koeppel offered to try to learn more about the specifics and would report back. ¶2. (S) Von Schoepff also stated that he recently heard about companies working with the "still active" AQ Khan network in Thailand, Malaysia, and Niger. While he wasn't able to provide more information, he stated that Germany's intelligence service (Bundesnachrichtendienst, or BND) had been collecting information on this matter for some time. Post will continue following up with contacts on these matters and report septel. Koenig