The Sentry NGO reveals the underside of North Korean business in the DRC

One of the statues that Congo Aconde built in Kamina, the capital of Haut-Lomami province, represents former President Laurent-Désiré Kabila (pictured left), and the other represents a leader of the Luba, a group ethnic (photo on the right).

Source: The Sentry

Text by: RFI Follow

4 min

The NGO The Sentry, founded by actor and activist Georges Clooney, is interested in the activities of North Korean businessmen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the circumvention of international sanctions in force against Pyongyang.

Their new report is called Art and Artifice.

What does it reveal?

Publicity

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Last August, The Sentry had already revealed that two North Korean businessmen had succeeded in creating in 2018 in the DRC a company, Congo Aconde, and even in opening dollar accounts at Afriland First Bank CD, the subsidiary of the Cameroonian bank.

According to the NGO, this was a violation of US sanctions which prohibit providing banking services in dollars to companies controlled by North Koreans, but also of the European Union and the UN which prohibits the construction of north statues. -Korean to its member states.

► Also read:

How two North Korean entrepreneurs circumvented international sanctions in the DRC

However, in its latest report, The Sentry details the activities of these two businessmen, already identified in Haut-Lomami, but who have projects in Haut-Katanga and in Lualaba: it is indeed a question of the construction of statues.

For example, in 2018, the town of Kolwezi spent $ 102,000 on its beautification.

However, according to The Sentry, the list of projects cited in the budget corresponds to those carried out by Congo Aconde with, among other things, the development of places with statues but also artificial waterfalls.

This company is said to be affiliated with the North Korean government through Korea Paekho Trading Corporation, a state-owned company of which little is known.

Except that it already operates in Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali and probably Nigeria and Cameroon.

This North Korean state corporation and Congo Aconde have almost the same logos and carry out the same type of activities.

Another clue to Pyongyang ties, according to The Sentry, was Congo Aconde's North Korean employees traveling on types of passports usually given to people on official business for the North Korean government.

Asked by RFI, the governorate of Lualaba promised to communicate this Tuesday on this affair.

The mayor of Kolwezi has not yet responded to our questions.

For John Dell'Osso, the author of this report, it is time for the institutions which took these sanctions to assist the Congolese authorities to put an end to these practices.

John Dell'Osso

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• DRC

• North Korea