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Trump hosts North Korean defectors in Oval Office
 by Staff Writers
 Washington (AFP) Feb 2, 2018

US hits notorious Laos casino with sanctions
Washington (AFP) Jan 30, 2018 - The US Treasury Tuesday placed the notorious Kings Romans Casino in the Golden Triangle region of Laos on its organized crime sanctions blacklist, calling it a hub of trafficking in humans, drugs and protected animals.

The Treasury said the Chinese casino owner Zhao Wei heads a formidable "transnational criminal organization" operating from the gaming resort in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone on the Mekong River near Ton Pheung, Laos, close to where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet.

"The Zhao Wei crime network engages in an array of horrendous illicit activities, including human trafficking and child prostitution, drug trafficking, and wildlife trafficking," said Sigal Mandelker, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in a statement.

"We are targeting key figures in this transnational criminal organization, which stretches from the Kings Romans Casino in Laos throughout Southeast Asia," she said.

The Treasury said the nine-year-old casino, ostensibly built to cater to tourists from southern China, is used to store and distribute narcotics from Myanmar's United Wa State Army, and launder money.

Since 2014, drug seizures in Thailand, Laos, and China have been traced to the Casino, it said.

It also said the Zhao Wei group "permits and promotes human trafficking and child prostitution."

Visitors to the casino widely report protected species such as bear, tiger and pangolin being available to eat in the casino's restaurant.

The Treasury named Su Guiqin, another Chinese national, Australian Abbas Eberahim and Thai Nat Rungtawankhiri as other key actors in the Zhao Wei organization.

Two Hong Kong companies and one Thai-based firm were also listed for sanctions.

The sanctions freezes the US-based assets of those on the blacklist and ban any US person or company from doing business with them.

US President Donald Trump welcomed six North Korean defectors to the Oval Office on Friday, a high profile and potentially provocative show of support.

The group -- whose stories Trump described as "incredible and truly inspirational" -- included a banker with knowledge of the regime's overseas operations, a former political prisoner and amputee Ji Seong-ho.

Seong-ho escaped from North Korea in 2006 and was given a place of honor just seats away from First Lady Melania Trump at Tuesday's State of the Union address.

Since coming to office Trump has made a series of bellicose remarks on North Korea and vowed to never let Pyongyang develop nuclear weapons that could hit the continental United States.

But his embrace of North Korean defectors could enrage the regime as much as any verbal barbs.

The meeting comes at a particularly sensitive time, as the Winter Olympics are about to get underway in South Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un -- who Trump has dismissively dubbed "rocket man" -- has so far pressed ahead with weapons programs and shows little sign of backing down.

Trump has pushed for an oil embargo against North Korea, a measure that could significantly dent the country's military operations and the broader economy.

But, according to diplomats, that effort has run into opposition from Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who believes it could cause the country's collapse.

Trump addressed the standoff in separate calls with the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Friday.

In a call with Japan's Shinzo Abe, the White House said both leaders agreed to "intensify the international maximum pressure campaign to denuclearize North Korea."

In his call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Trump wished "him and the Korean people a successful Winter Olympic Games."


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NUKEWARS
After Korean thaw, UN chief pushes 'serious' talks
 United Nations, United States (AFP) Feb 2, 2018
 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that it was "absolutely essential" for key players to hold "serious" talks on North Korea's nuclear crisis to build on a thaw in relations between Pyongyang and Seoul. Guterres will pay an official visit to South Korea next week for talks with leaders in Seoul and to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. "Our objective remains the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Guterres told reporters at UN headqua ... read more
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