By Thomas Chandan
Despite standing United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions aimed at strangling North Korean’s revenue from labor exports, the embattled Pyongyang regime has continued to sneak its medical doctors into Mozambique.
Experts say if unchecked, North Korea’s dance with Mozambique in violation of UNSC resolutions banning the importation of labour from North Korea, will continue.
North Korea’s habitual flouting of international sanctions has of late brought into question, the effectiveness of the sanctions, some of which have had serious measures of success.
Unanimously adopted on March 2, 2016 after North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test, UNSC Resolution 2270 specifically requires member states to repatriate North Korean nationals found to be working on behalf of a Security Council resolution-designated entity.
On August 5, 2017 in response to North Korea’s two Inter-continental Ballistic Missile ICBM tests in July the same year, the UNSC unanimously adopted Resolution 2371, which, inter alia, banned countries from accepting additional North Korean laborers.
Following North Korea’s sixth nuclear test on September 3, 2017 the UNSC again unanimously adopted UNSCR 2375 on September 11 the same year which, among other strong measures, banned member states from authorising North Korean nationals to work in their jurisdictions, unless otherwise determined by a special UNSC committee.
The same UNSCR also bans any and all joint ventures or cooperative entities or the expansion of existing joint ventures with North Korean entities or individuals.
Yet Mozambique, which is a United Nations member state, has been caught flouting UNSC resolutions it acceded to against North Korea, this time with the use of North Korean doctors on Mozambican soil.
The strengthening of ties and increase in illicit transactions between the two governments come amid Mozambique’s disputed general election late 2024 which was marred by countrywide political unrest and state-sanctions political killings that saw at least 250 people being killed.
A reliable source who served in a senior position under Mozambique’s two former leaders, Presidents Joaquim Chissano and Armando Guebuza, revealed in an interview that an agreement was struck in October 2024 between Mozambique’s Frelimo government, through its Ministry of Health, and North Korea, to continue the latter’s illegal loaning of its medical personnel to Maputo.
“It is a known fact that the two governments sealed a deal to reject a 2020 pledge that Mozambican authorities had made to the UNSC to stop borrowing of North Korean doctors,” the source, who asked not to be named, said.
It is understood that some of the medical experts from North Korea assigned under the continued illegal labour export programme to replace the banned doctors in Mozambique, include specialist doctors in surgery, family medicine and obstetrics and gynecology.
“The movement of these medical experts,” the top source said, “was no doubt done by the order and active input of then Minister of Health Armindo Tiago in accordance with a Frelimo cabinet resolution under the command of [former] President Filipe Nyusi.”
It is estimated that there are presently at least 150 North Koreans in Mozambique, of which number includes medical doctors and their families.
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2397 on December 22, 2017 in response to North Korea’s ICBM launch on November 29. The resolution explicitly accused North Korea of exporting workers and contraband overseas as a means of generating revenue to fund its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
“One of the principal sanctions of UNSCR 2397 directs countries, including my country Mozambique to eject all North Korean workers immediately, or in two years at the latest, yet you find the Frelimo regime concluding deals to import North Korean labour,” the source said, adding, “This means Mozambique is aiding and abetting, and is therefore, guilty by international and moral standards.”
The source says a secret meeting was held between Nyusi’s government and North Korean officials in Maputo in August 2024 to map out ways of bypassing the international sanctions targeting North Korea’s exportation of medical experts.
“After much negotiations, the two governments agreed to continue the banned programme of using North Korean labour in Mozambique, but at a limited pace to avoid too much international scrutiny,” the source reveals.
There have been reliable reports of South Africa based North Korean diplomats who abuse their diplomatic privilege by buying medicines and health supplements in bulk from South Africa before making forays into Mozambique where they sell them at exorbitant prices.
This is done in collusion with North Korean doctors in Maputo who take advantage of Mozambique’s dire medical conditions where there are drug shortages and high drug prices.
“In some cases, North Korean security officials based in Pretoria, South Africa act as mafia in extorting hapless Nork Korean doctors in Maputo by seizing 90 percent of their salaries to fund the regime’s nuclear weapons programme as well as the development of weapons being used in the Ukrainian conflict, thus threatening world peace,” the source says.
Deprived of their salaries by the powerful regime’s security mafia, some North Korean medical doctors have reportedly resorted to illicit activities including rhino horn smuggling for sustenance, something which analysts say the Mozambican government is aware of.
Cases abound of North Korean medical doctors setting up secret medical facilities including clinics, while some have been fingered for peddling and administering funny medicines, some of which have been considered harmful to people in Mozambique.
“There have been several cases of peddling of illegal and substandard medicines and supplements by North Korean doctors operating in Mozambique,” a source close to investigations says. “This is happening right under the Frelimo authorities’ nose, yet they turn a blind eye to the goings on.”
Efforts to reach Mozambique’s former National Director of Public Health and newly appointed health minister Dr Ussene Isse and National Directorate of Medical Services (DNAM) officials were futile by the time of going to press.
