Soroade Bakery

Pyongyang Papers has continued to investigate Korea Chinson General Corporation and their activities in Africa. Our previous article investigated a contract between the Nigeria company Skynext Services Ltd and Chinson in an obvious violation of UN Security Council resolutions which ban all member states from employing DPRK workers. The aim of this ban is to try and limit the funds heading back to the regime, where it is used to advance the North Korea nuclear & ballistic weapons program.

More Chinson activity in Nigeria

Korea Chinson General Corporation continue to provide North Korean workers to companies in Nigeria. Pyongyang Papers have been informed that Chinson have been supplying workers to the Soroade Bakery & Confectionery Company. Soroade are based at New Auditorium Road, Boun Village, Mowe, Ogun State and lists Husaini G Dumbarambe as its Director. Social media posting from late 2022 appear to verify our claim and shows North Koreans associated with the bakery enjoying some free time.

Social media posting showing North Korean workers in Nigeria

Chinson active in other African countries

Nigeria is not the only country that the Korea Chinson General Corporation actively look to send North Korean workers to. Ethiopia also appears to be lucrative for the company as they continue to exploit DPRK citizens in order to maker money for the regime. Our sources have also informed us of a contract between the Chinson office in Ethiopia & the Ethiopian Construction Design and Supervision Works Corporation (ECDSWC). The contract was signed on 1 November 2022 and covers a two-year period for DPRK geophysicists, a Hydro-Mechanical engineer and a team leader/civil engineer. ECDSWC are an engineering company that was created by merging three companies together with the “commitment to the creation of knowledge base and provision of excelling & sustainable engineering solutions to the challenges of our people throughout Africa.”

In October 2016 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia announced that ECDSWC and the Korea Rural Corporation (KRC) from South Korea had signed a memorandum of understanding encouraging both sides to secure projects in which both are mutually interested. Pyongyang Papers is certain that the memorandum does not include hiring North Korean workers! Pyongyang Papers contacted the Ethiopian Construction Design and Supervision Works Corporation about the contract but they did not reply.

Add the contract to the claims in the latest UN Panel of Experts report that an official from Chinson and an official from the DPRK embassy in Nigeria traveled to the Niger to collect hundreds of thousands of US dollars in cash, and bought the funds back to Nigeria. It becomes very clear that North Korea continues to find ways to circumvent sanctions and fund its nuclear & ballistic weapons program as ordinary citizens continue to suffer. Nigeria and Ethiopia are both UN member states and need to prove that they enforce the sanctions they are committed to.

As always, if you have any information North Korean sanctions evasion or Chinson, please get in touch through the ‘Contact Us’ page.

North Korean business deals with countries on the African continent is well documented and extensive. Pyongyang Papers has conducted several investigations looking at sanctions breaking in the region and this time we aim to shine a light on one country in particular – Nigeria

Nigeria relations

“Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress” – Nigeria’s national motto. Unfortunately, North Korea does not share any aspects of this motto and would rather disorder, betrayal, conflict and decline. Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa and formally established diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1976. In 2014, the two countries signed an economic cooperation agreement in the areas of knowledge exchange, information technology and public sector exchanges of modern technology. Both Nigeria and the DPRK maintain embassies in each other’s countries and as recently as 2022, the UN panel of experts were investigating information that suggested Nigeria were planning on purchasing $3.5 million worth of military equipment with the deal being brokered by the Haegumgang Trading Corporation. A weapons-trading entity belonging to the DPRK Ministry of People’s Armed Forces.

Current activity

Given Nigeria’s warm relationship with North Korea, it should come as no surprise that the DPRK regime continue to use the country as a means to generate revenue for their nuclear and ballistic weapons program.

One company that seems to feature quite heavily in Nigeria is Korea Chinson General Cooperation, who have been investigated in Nigeria previously. Pyongyang Papers have been made aware that UN sanctioned DPRK workers are working within blanket factories, tire factories, plastic bag factories and also a security company.

To add to this, our sources have also passed us a copy of a contract regarding a three year deal with a Lagos based company called Skynext Service Ltd to aid the construction and running of the Lagos rubber factory. The deal involves Chinson providing Skynext with a range of North Korean laborers including:

• Two structural design engineers
• Two interpreters
• Thirteen skills constructors
• Two heavy vehicle mechanics
• Twenty one rubber factory machinists

Extracts taken from the Agreement between Skynext Service Ltd and Korea Chinson General Corporation

The contract is valid for three years and states it will be automatically renewed at the end of each three year period. We are still working to confirm the presence of the DPRK workers for Skynext as the contract also states “The parties further agreed to implement the contract … at a time when the global pandemic of COVID-19 has been resolved and the dispatch of experts from Chinson is possible. But will be valid until July 2023 at latest.” The contract was signed and dated by Mr Ibrahim Mohammed Musaddiq (representing Skynext) and Mr KO Yong Myong (representing Chinson) on 18th August 2022.

The contract lists the address for Skynext as 3 Avenue, Festac but our investigation suggests they may now be located at Commercial Road, Apapa in Lagos. Information regarding the company’s type of activity is limited but the contract and import information available online suggest they are in the manufacturing business. Pyongyang Papers reached out to Skynext directly for comment about their sanctioned activity but received no reply.

The future

With the North Korean borders beginning to open up it is highly likely that North Korean workers will begin moving around the globe again as DPRK companies look to fulfill contracts drafted during the pandemic, evade sanctions and raise funds to enable the regime to continue developing nuclear weapons. The contract between Skynext and Chinson proves that even when the North Korean border is sealed shut and ordinary citizens are believed to be starving, Kim Jong Un and the regime are still content to exploit ordinary DPRK citizens for their own despicable gains.

Pyongyang Papers aims to expose any sanctioned North Korean activity and relies on its sources. If you have any information in relation to this article or any other DPRK activity please get in touch through the ‘Contact Us’ page.

DPRK and African Flags

As we have written about previously, it is well known that North Korea send workers abroad to bring money home for the Regime. Pyongyang Papers have previously talked about Doctors relocating to Africa but for this investigation we are zoning in on Niger and Nigeria. It is known that these workers should have returned home by December 2019 due to sanctions, but one healthcare professional told NKNews that North Koreans are still working in Nigeria despite the ban on overseas DPRK labor. In Novemebr 2020, Nigeria told told the UN Panel of Experts that a group of 37 North Korean healthcare professionals were awaiting deportation but due to lockdowns their cases were stalled. Here at Pyongyang Papers, we wonder if these 37 individuals were ever sent back to their homelands.

What else are they up to?

It has been reported that a range of North Korean-style hospitals have been set up in different African countries and some of them even sell prescriptions for herbal medicines that were later found to contain dangerous amounts of poisonous heavy metals! Information has been passed to us that indicate that complints against the DPRK are on the increase.

Photo
An advert for Faris Hospital Ltd.

One DPRK physician at Faris Hospital Ltd., had his contract terminated due to serious malpractice. Pyongyang Papers are led to believe that this physician is actively looking for a new contract with a number of Nigerian hospitals.

Overseas postings are highly sought after and usually reserved for the upper classes – Doctors in foreign postings can earn $1000 per month with $800 of that going back to North Korea. In contrast, those in the restaurant industry only tend to earn a few hundred dollars with similar proportions being deducted. DPRK doctors also tend to b able to move around more freely and are not restricted to strict rules like those working in restaurants. So no wonder this physician is keen to remain in work abroad!

North Korea’s own healthcare system is in a poor state due to lack of food and drugs – people are self-medicating and are being forced to have amputations when the drugs needed to cure infections are not readily available.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits hospitalized survivors of horror bus crash | CNN
Kim Jong Un visiting patients in hospital

Where is the money?

Lack of funds also appears to be an issue overseas after a prominent member of staff at the Niger Optical Services Co. LTD., hospital located in Igbo-Ukwu Ekwulobia, Nigeria, recorded a complaint to the Chief Representative of the DPRK Chinson General Corporation Representative Office in Nigeria. This was about the medical staff, who joined the srvice in 2019, not generating enough income for the optical service. Pyongyang Papers wonders how much these medical staff are making for the Regime! And if they are not generating money for the service, how long can they remain employed?

Due to a long-standing relationship between Africa and North Korea since the Cold War, and the fact the labor is highly skilled yet cheap, the country and companies within it seems to be ignoring the UN sanctions for their own gain. These health workers in Nigeria and the rest of Africa are in violation of UN security council resolution 2397, even in 2020 (after the workers should have been sent home) North Korea and Nigeria signed a public health cooperation agreement and the Nigerian Health Minister claimed that Nigeria had a desire to learn from North Korea in the sphere of public health – this is concerning to hear with links to malpractice!

If you have any more information about DPRK physicians and health workers in Nigeria, here at Pyongyang Papers, we appreciate anything you can provide us. Please get in contact.