Sudan: ‘All military ties with North Korea severed’

On the eve of a visit to Khartoum by a UN panel of experts to monitor compliance with sanctions on North Korea, Sudan has reaffirmed its commitment to all UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea, and claims it has cut all military ties with Pyongyang.

In a statement issued by Foreign Ministry spokesman Gariballah Khidir in Khartoum on Wednesday, the Sudan Ministry of Foreign Affairs asserted that “the Sudan defence industry system has abolished all the contracts that it has signed with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and ended any relations with it, whether directly or through a third party,” according to the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA).

The Ministry welcomed the arrival of the delegation which was formed in terms of UN Security Council resolution 1718 (2006) and affirmed Sudan’s commitment to the resolutions issued by the Security Council on sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The statement stresses that “Sudan is adherent to its principled position and commitments regarding rejection to the production, use, and stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction weapons in compliance with Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty”.

The statement announced that the government of Sudan has formed a national committee to prepare a report on implementation of the international sanctions against North Korea, adding that this report will be delivered to the Security Council’s experts committee as soon as possible.

Military cooperation

In its report to the Security Council on 5 March 2018, the UN experts said they investigated military cooperation between Sudan and North Korea and the activities of Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), Pyongyang arms dealer and exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.

The panel said that between 2016 and 2018, they asked the Sudanese foreign ministry to clarify and provide documentation to substantiate its statements about the cut of military cooperation with North Korea, but their requests were in vain.

“A Member State indicated that since February 2017, cooperation with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has continued, noting that “NPN Electronics Company” sent technicians to Sudan in September 2016 and that two KOMID operatives deported from Egypt in April 2016, Kim Song Chol and Son Jong Hyok, are the centre of the new connection between Sudan and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” reads the report.

Commitment

In November 2017, US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan met with Sudan’s then Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour to endorse a roadmap for the second phase of talks on the normalisation of bilateral US-Sudan relations.

At that time, during a closed-door meeting, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry formally announced Sudan’s commitment to sever all trade and military ties with North Korea. The commitment was welcomed by the US State Department.

(Sources: SUNA/RD/ST)