Established 1961 9 International Sunday, December 3, 2017 Squeezed by sanctions, N Korea company hawks ‘cancer cures’ Latest offer: A $50 root to cure cancer JINAN: While the United States pushes for new sanctions used by North Korea to adapt and dodge UN measures on North Korea, one trading company from the hermit targeting its most vital industries. “Shinhung in early state has creatively reinvented itself to survive. Its latest 2000s was doing computers, they’ve been all across the offer: A $50 root to “cure” cancer. The Shinhung Trading board, they’ve done fish, they’ve done produce,” said Company has exported seafood, sold millions of dollars of Korea expert Ken Gause of CNA research in Virginia. iron ore to China’s national railway and bypassed sanc- “They’ve reinvented themselves many times as most of tions to import luxury goods from Japan. these trading companies have.” But as a series of United Nations sanctions have taken those big ticket items off the plate, the firm has resorted to Exports to China selling “North Korean specialties”. At an alcohol and A decade ago, Shinhung mainly sold “shellfish, crabs, sweets expo held recently in bustling Jinan, China, two fish” abroad, according to an official North Korean trade North Korean women in website. As the North’s purple gowns, with images dependence on China of the North’s departed grew, it set up offices in dear leaders pinned to the border city of their lapels, manned Dandong and the north- Shinhung’s booth. They Shinhung trading eastern port city of Dalian. sold North Korean herbal With China’s booming remedies, cigarettes, and a company selling economy devouring special type of ginseng resources, Shinhung ven- “efficacious for prevention tiger bone liquor tured into mining, sending and curing all sorts of 210,000 tons of iron ore cancers,” its label said. through the remote “We also sell tiger Nanping border crossing bone liquor,” said one of to a subsidiary of China Shinhung’s representa- Railway Corp in 2014. tives, declining to give her name. “It is made from tiger The subsidiary-Tumen Xinhuan Goods Trading bone, one of our most important animal products.” How Company-brought in 165 million yuan ($25 million) that long they had been selling such products was “our compa- year by trading in the North’s iron ore, the Shenyang JINAN: Photo shows a North Korean trade stand during a sweets and alcohol exhibition in Jinan, China’s ny’s little secret”. Shinhung is one of the North’s numerous Railway Bureau says on its website. To haul the loads from Shandong province. —AFP state-owned trading companies, which experts say bring the North, truckers “rose at dawn and returned at dusk, in money for ministries, pay loyalty fees to the Kim family, working more than 10 hours each day,” the bureau says. to UN investigators. Dalian is also a frequent port of call Transportation, according to its chairman Wang Junliang, and fund the rogue weapons program. It is overseen by Tumen requested bids to bring 150,000 tons across the for the Hae Bang San, an ageing 73-metre cargo ship who said he did not know anything about the ruse. the North’s Ministry of State Security, according to an Nanping border this year, but Jia Juncai, Tumen’s manager, linked to Shinhung, that has changed its name and flag at “They’ve been illegally using our name,” Wang told AFP. academic paper published by South Korea’s Ministry of said they halted trade after new UN sanctions passed in least half-dozen times over the last decade, according to a “We’ve been trying to get in contact with the North Unification. China’s market and Chinese middlemen remain August. “Our whole company is basically not operating at database on the NK News website. Back when the ship Koreans to discuss this for months, but it’s not that easy to crucial to its aims, though sanctions appear to be hammer- the moment,” Jia said. was called the Moon Lake, a Dalian company tied to find them, or easy to pressure them.” Experts say the ing its ability to earn in the country, which accounts for 90 China’s state-owned investment giant SDIC Group booked ship’s Hong Kong ownership may have allowed the North percent of North Korea’s total trade. Shipping cargo for the vessel until 2013. Koreans to procure sanctioned items. “If you’re sending As US President Donald Trump seeks new sanctions In 2008 and 2009, Shinhung used a shipping agency in The North Koreans took the opportunity to register the cargo on it, you’re dealing with the third party and not after Pyongyang tested another intercontinental ballistic China to purchase $100,000 of high-end cosmetics from ship under the name of the group’s Hong Kong-based directly dealing with the North Korean state,” said profes- missile this week, Shinhung’s latest venture highlights ways Japan, and ship them to North Korea via Dalian, according company, HongKong Complant International sor Robert Huish at Dalhousie University. —AFP India, Sri Lanka cyclone death Dying alone in toll rises to 26 world’s most COLOMBO: Thousands took to relief camps in Sri Lanka populous city and southern India yesterday to escape rising floodwaters after a cyclone killed at least 26 people. Cyclone Ockhi has TOKYO: The stench of flesh rotting on a sultry day fills left 13 people dead in Sri Lanka and killed an equal num- the air as cleaner Hidemitsu Ohshima steps into a tiny ber in India’s Kerala and Tamil Nadu states since Friday as Tokyo apartment where a dead man lay decomposing it churns in the Arabian Sea. Eleven people, mostly fisher- for three weeks. The man, believed to be in his 50s, died men, remained missing in the two countries as nearly alone in a city he shared with tens of millions of other 9,000 people sought shelter in relief camps. people but no one noticed, making him the latest victim Scores of localites suffered flooding and cut power and of “Kodokushi” or “dying alone”-a growing trend in telephone lines as winds of up to 130 kilometers (80 miles) ageing Japan. Decked out in a white protective suit per hour swept the region. Weather experts warned of complete with rubber gloves, Ohshima lifts up a futon more heavy rains to come, as the water level rose in sever- mattress soaked with the dead man’s bodily fluids, only al rivers in southern India. The tiny Indian island of to uncover a writhing mass of maggots and black bugs. Lakshadweep off the country’s western coast braced for “Ugh, this is serious,” he says. “You wear protective winds of 145 kilometers (90 miles) per hour. The Sri suits to defend yourself from bugs that may or may not Lankan disaster management centre said 77,000 people in be carrying diseases.” Kodokushi is a growing prob- 16 districts have been affected, with the highest number in lem in Japan, where 27.7 percent of the population is the southern Galle district. aged over 65 and many people are giving up trying to Nearly 4,000 people are in Sri Lankan relief camps find partners in middle age, opting instead for a soli- amid widespread destruction of property. Authorities are tary existence. Experts say a combination of uniquely on red alert in coastal areas, with five deaths already Japanese cultural, social and demographic factors have BANGALORE: A pedestrian jumps a puddle of water as he crosses the road after copious reported in Kanyakumari on the southern tip of India. compounded the problem. rains in Bangalore. —AFP Schools and colleges in parts of India’s southern states have been shut as authorities try to restore nearly 4,000 Lonely death snapped power lines. The Kerala state emergency depart- north into Tamil Nadu and the east coast state of Andhra more than 8,000 people were killed when a cyclone bat- There are no official figures for the number of peo- ment said nearly 3,200 people were in relief camps. “Seven Pradesh in the next four days. tered the eastern state of Orissa. ple dying alone who stay unnoticed for days and people died in several incidents and 218 were rescued India’s eastern coast-including major cities like Chennai While Cyclone Ockhi was said to be weakening, anoth- weeks but most experts estimate it at 30,000 per year. from the sea,” an agency official said. and Bhubaneswar-are prone to storms that wreak er tropical storm was brewing in the Bay of Bengal on the Yoshinori Ishimi, who runs the Anshin Net service that Weather officials said the storm was likely to move immense damage between April and December. In 1999, east coast, officials said.—AFP cleans up afterwards, believes the true figure is “twice or three times that.”Modern Japan has experienced sweeping cultural and economic changes in recent decades but demographers say the country’s social ‘What should we do?’ safety net has failed to keep pace-with the burden still Bali volcano burns Bali’s main international airport was shut for almost on the family to look after the elderly. “In Japan, family three days from Monday as towering columns of volcanic has long served as the strong foundation of social sup- ash and smoke made flying dangerous, sparking travel port of all kinds,” said Katsuhiko Fujimori, a well- wedding dreams, chaos and leaving around 120,000 tourists stranded. It known expert on welfare issues. re-opened late Wednesday, but mostly for tourists depart- “But now things are changing with the rise of single threatens economy ing the island, not arriving.