NORTH KOREA'S SANCTIONS-BUSTING TOOLKIT: SHELL COMPANIES,
MARITIME FRAUD, AND CRYPTOCURRENCY
September 2019
GRADE - B2
Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of M.Sc. in
International Relations
Word Count: 13,287
, !i
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………..ii
Abstract……………………………………… ……………………………………..iii
Chapter 1: Introduction ……………………………………………….……….……1
Chapter 2: Literature Review………………………………………………………..2
Chapter 3: Key Debates & Potential Outside Factors……………………………….7
Chapter 4: Methodology…………………………………………………………….11
Chapter 5: Status of North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Program and United Nations
Sanctions…………………………………………………………………………….13
Chapter 6: Shell Companies………………………………………………….……..18
Chapter 7: Maritime Fraud………………………………………………………….23
Chapter 8: Cryptocurrency………………………………………………………….29
Chapter 9: Conclusion………………………………………………………………36
References…………………………………………………………………………..40
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Acknowledgements
This work would not have been possible without the support of my
supervisors, Professor Beatrice Heuser and Dr. Patrick Bayer. Thank you for offering
me guidance throughout this process. I would like to thank Dr. Bayer for encouraging
me to choose a research topic that I was passionate about studying. Moreover, I would
like to thank Professor Heuser for always challenging me to contribute meaningful
work to the academic community. I am forever indebted to my parents, for
encouraging me to expand my academic career abroad. My family taught me the
value of hard work, and this research is a reflection of that. I would also like to thank
my colleagues at the University of Glasgow for their support and encouragement as I
completed this research. Finally, I would like to give a special thanks to the United
Nations for whom's resources I utilized greatly.
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Abstract
Despite United Nations sanctions, North Korea has pursued a nuclear weapons
program since the 1950s. North Korea’s dark networks have aided its accumulation of
millions of dollars in revenue, yet the country has not operated alone. The purpose of
this research is to answer the question of how North Korea evades sanctions through
three parallel and fraudulent systems of shell companies, maritime fraud, and
cryptocurrency. The methodological approach of this research frames North Korea in
a realist perspective and explains North Korea's sanctions evasion through an analysis
of UN sanctions, Panel of Experts reports, and the most recent news events. The
results demonstrate that there are a number of facilitating factors behind North
Korea’s sanctions evasion and that cryptocurrency is an increasing threat to sanctions
effectiveness. Overall, the conclusion from this research is that the international
community does not pay enough attention to the international actors enabling North
Korea's sanctions evasion.
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