DPRK: USUN BRIEFS SOUTH KOREA ON UAE-REPORTED

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000780 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/20/2019 TAGS: PREL PHUM ETTC MCAP KN UNSC SUBJECT: DPRK: USUN BRIEFS SOUTH KOREA ON UAE-REPORTED SANCTIONS VIOLATION Classified By: Amb. Alejandro Wolff for Reasons 1.4 (B),(D) ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: USUN briefed the South Korea UN mission on an apparent violation of UN sanctions on North Korea uncovered by the United Arab Emirates. USUN explained the details of the case -- namely, the UAE's discovery of arms being shipped from North Korea to Iran aboard a Bahamas-flagged vessel in violation of resolution 1874 -- and likely action to be taken by the Security Council's DPRK Sanctions Committee in response. The South Korean mission expressed gratitude for the brief and pledged to keep the information close hold until the facts of the incident become more widely known. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) On August 19, USUN Sanctions Unit chief briefed the South Korea (Republic of Korea) mission about an apparent violation of UN sanctions on North Korea uncovered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He explained that the UAE mission had submitted a report to the Security Council's DPRK Sanctions Committee ("1718 Committee") stating that UAE authorities stopped a Bahamas-flagged vessel found carrying ten containers of "suspected prohibited materials" (arms and related materiel) from North Korea to Iran. The shipment of this cargo appears to violate resolution 1874, which bans the transfer of arms from North Korea and the procurement of such items by other states. ¶3. (SBU) USUN told the South Koreans that Turkey, the chair of the 1718 Committee, had just circulated the report to all fifteen members of the committee. In an initial phase, the Committee would likely send a round of letters to involved states asking for more information about this incident. USUN noted that although the report is not being shared outside of the Committee, the United States wants to make sure that South Korea -- one of the seven countries that principally negotiated resolution 1874 -- be kept well informed. ¶4. (SBU) JK Youn, South Korea mission non-proliferation expert, expressed gratitude for this information and promised to forward it to Seoul. Recognizing the sensitivities of the issue, he said his mission would "play dumb" if asked questions about the incident, at least until the facts of the incident became more widely known. Youn agreed with USUN's assessment that this incident provides potentially useful opportunities to reinforce the need to implement robustly UN sanctions on North Korea. RICE