Deported From UK

[Anchor Lead]

In our next report, a KBS team has confirmed that the British government deported North Korean insurance company officials after securing evidence that they had been funding North Korea’s nuclear and missile development programs.

[Pkg]

This is the office of a North Korean state insurance firm located on the outskirts of London. Pieces of torn paper are found in one corner of the empty yard. Phone numbers of North Korean Ambassador to the U.K. Hyon Hak-bong and North Korea's National Security Agency office in Germany can be seen on the discarded papers. There are also records of gas and electricity payments. The insurance company's North Korean employees have left without properly destroying important documents.

[Soundbite] Neighbor

A KBS reporting team found that the British government has cancelled the business license of North Korea's National Insurance Corporation and deported two of its officials. The U.K. has also frozen more than 4.5 million U.S. dollars in the firm's savings account and seized the building. The U.K. Treasury posted a notice on its homepage recently, making it clear that the North Korean insurance company had been sanctioned for supplying Pyongyang's regime with foreign currency and contributing to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile developments. Pyongyang has apparently been using its state insurance firm as a roundabout payment channel after its money flow was disrupted by the international sanctions against the North.