Hyundai Helped Fund North Korean Uranium Program: Expert

Larry A. Niksch of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), who regularly publishes reports on North Korea and the Korea-U.S. relationship, said in his Feb. 22 report Hyundai funds went into accelerating North Korea's secret HEU development program. He said the money Hyundai gave Pyongyang accounted for at least 30 percent of North Korea's foreign currency earnings between 1999 and 2000.
According to a CIA estimate, it was between this time and 2001 that North Korea accelerated its HEU program, he said. He added it was at that time that the North went shopping for supplies and parts from abroad for the program, and its HEU program went from the research and development stage to procuring and installing equipment capable of producing weapons.
But Niksch said the conclusion about the ultimate use of Hyundai's money was not the CIA's but his own, based on strong circumstantial evidence.
The report said Hyundai's funds went straight into the Korean Workers Party's Bureau 39 reportedly managed by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Bureau 39 has been in charge of obtaining parts and supplies for the country's weapons of mass destruction program. Hyundai is said to have paid North Korea an estimated US$600 million for its Geumgang Mountains tourism project and two other business projects in the North, as well as US$500 million in under-the-table remittances, between 1999 and 2003.
Niksch first fingered Hyundai for covert transactions with the