Switzerland bans ski-lift exports to North Korea
Pyongyang approached several Swiss companies to sell it equipment for luxury resort
Reuters in Geneva
The Guardian, Monday 19 August 2013 18.59 BST
The construction site of a ski resort in North Korea. Photograph: Reuters
Switzerland has banned the sale to North Korea of equipment for a luxury ski resort, officials have said.
North Korea's leader, Kim Jung-un, who studied under an assumed name in the Swiss capital, Berne, and is believed to have gone on school ski trips in the Alps, wants to develop leisure activities for tourists and the country's ruling elite.
North Korea approached several Swiss companies including Bartholet Maschinenbau to provide chairlifts and cable cars for its sprawling Masik resort, the Geneva daily Le Temps reported.
But the Swiss government, contacted by the firms for clearance, added luxury sporting equipment to its list of goods banned under United Nations sanctions, said Marie Avet, of the state secretariat for economic affairs.
"The Federal Council decided on 3 July to also put infrastructure for sports facilities on the list, especially when they have a more luxury character for resorts," Avet said. "These resorts have a luxury character, that is why it is not appropriate to export."
Switzerland's sanctions list for North Korea also includes equipment for golf, horseback riding, water sports, billiards and casinos, as well as luxury watches, jewellery, caviar, perfume and artworks.
Almost a third of North Korean children are stunted due to malnutrition, the UN's World Food Programme has said. North Korea is under UN sanctions for its nuclear and missile weapons programmes.
A North Korean diplomat in Geneva said it was aware of the Swiss decision but had no other information.
South Korea is due to host the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018.
Last month North Korea's envoy in Switzerland, So Se Pyong, said economic development "to increase the people's livelihood" was a priority for Pyongyang under Kim.
"We built many, such as water parks, and [despite being in] the difficult position, we built water parks for people and rollercoasters for children," So said. "We are now building a ski resort also for the tourist places in Wonsan area. So this is for the people."
Sanctions aimed at crimping the lifestyle of the elite were first imposed in 2006, but until March the resolutions had never given examples of such goods, leaving it up to individual countries to decide what constituted a luxury product. In 2009 Austrian and Italian authorities seized two luxury yachts that had been sold to North Korea.
