VIDEO: North Korea and the triads: gangsters, ghost ships and spies | FT Film

North Korea and the triads: gangsters, ghost ships and spies | FT Film

“Gangsters, ghost ships, oil traders, casino operators, North Korean spies, a gold trader from Hong Kong, and a racing car driver from Macau. There have been some arrests, a few suicides…

In this joint investigation with the Royal United Services Institute think-tank in London, we reveal, for the first time, some of the faces behind the organised criminal networks that have facilitated North Korean sanctions evasion.

North Korea has been using the triads and others to assist it in its operations. It’s had to procure oil illicitly. And the end result is that the weapons programme keeps going. No matter what, they will find oil to fuel their missiles. What we found, again and again, were connections to the casinos, connections to Suncity. These weaknesses in the global financial system are exploited by a whole range of illicit actors. So the ability to launder money is critical for North Korea’s weapons programme. This is a country whose ballistic missiles can reach halfway around the globe. The triads and these high-level criminal organisations, they’re a strategic concern for all of us.

This is a story about how the triads facilitate the oil trade that keeps North Korea’s weapons programme alive. Without oil and without oil products, like petrol, and especially diesel, not only the North Korean economy, but also its very large military, upon which the regime bases its power, would simply grind to a halt.”

From FT Film:

“A convicted gambling tycoon, a Hong Kong gold trader, and a racing car driver from Macau: the FT and think-tank Rusi reveal some of the individuals behind a network connecting Chinese criminal groups to North Korean oil procurement and intelligence operations which help to sustain the country’s military and nuclear weapons programme.”

• 00:00 Gangsters, ghost ships and spies
• 00:55 Why oil?
• 03:40 Tracking the ghost ships
• 06:16 North Korean defector
• 07:44 Loyalty to the leader
• 08:03 NK turns to criminals
• 09:22 UN oil cap
• 11:04 Sanctions ramp up
• 12:20 The triads
• 12:50 Intimidating ship crew
• 14:03 Why Hong Kong?
• 14:27 Gary To
• 15:53 Alvin Chau and casinos
• 16:44 Broken Tooth
• 20:05 Macau
• 21:37 Sun Tit Fan
• 23:26 China and North Korea
• 26:57 Nuclear North Korea
• 28:32 “They were seen as a joke”
• 29:08 Who is to blame?
• 30:36 What can be done?
• 33:39 Rights to reply