One of the buildings of the Embassy of North Korea in Berlin for rent – it is a cheap and popular among tourists, the hotel City Hostel. Within walking distance from the Brandenburg gate, Unter den Linden, Potsdamer Platz and other sights. At the same time the building itself and the land on which it stands belongs to the Embassy of the DPRK, what notify the flag and the plaque and portrait of the current leader of the Korean people Kim Jong UN in the adjacent building. The lease coffers of North Korea is monthly replenished with approximately 40 thousand Euro. This writes the “Novaya Gazeta”.
According to the publication, in the times of socialism, the GDR authorities have identified the fraternal North Korea in the property the territory under a diplomatic representation in East Berlin. Behind the fence rose two storey semi-detached house, which housed the official offices and residences for diplomats and their families.
When the Berlin wall fell and took the unification of Germany, Embassy of the DPRK was a scandalous incident. In Berlin had to move diplomats from Bonn, but accredited in the former GDR Embassy staff refused to leave their homes and to return home. Then Pyongyang has completely blocked the funding. From-for what the German authorities were forced to turn off heating, electricity and water, despite that the Koreans stubbornly kept the defense even more.
By the beginning of the zero years, when the country experienced a complete collapse and famine, the number of staff of the DPRK Embassy in Germany has decreased in 10 times — from 100 up to 10 people. For them with an excess of missing and one building.
The second building that was not idle for nothing, was leased to the German entrepreneur, who converted it into a City Hostel. Night stay it will cost those who are willing to be content with modest comfort, and just 17 Euro per bed in a dormitory for 4 or 8 people. It is quite affordable even to pupils and students, so the availability is almost never — everything is booked for months ahead.
“As a result, the state Treasury of North Korea was a monthly updated foreign currency income from Berlin to 38 thousand Euro”, – says the authors of the material.
In November 2016, after another illegal nuclear weapons test, the UN security Council adopted a resolution according to which all member countries were required to deny North Korea the use of owned or leased her property for any other purpose except solely for diplomatic and consular activities. The decision was due to a just concern that the revenue from the rental of foreign property to rent the North Korean authorities used to further military build-up.
“Now the Germans are determined to put an end to the enterprise of North Koreans in Germany. But it will not be easy. To seize the building is not the property of another state. Other ways pressure is fraught with retaliatory measures against the official representation of Germany to the DPRK. There is only one option — to force the German Embassy building tenant to cancel the agreement”, – said in the article.
Journalists suggest that to force the tenant to abandon the profitable of the hotel in Central Berlin, officials have at the legislative level to make changes in the regulation of foreign activities of German firms. This should complicate the business with embassies and other official missions of countries to which the international community imposes sanctions.
As reported, the UN security Council on 20 April strongly condemned North Korea over the recent ballistic missile tests, noting the possibility of imposing new sanctions against Pyongyang for an “extremely destabilizing behavior.”
A draft statement developed by the United States, was agreed after the insistence of Russia to add one sentence.
APR 19, Moscow has blocked UN preliminary statement condemning the recent missile tests of North Korea. Russia was the only of the 15 member countries of the security Council, which opposed the draft statement is only a declarative document. The closest ally of Pyongyang, Beijing, endorsed the statement. According to diplomats, Moscow considered insufficient wishes to resolve the conflict “through peaceful and diplomatic means”, demanding to include the phrase “through dialogue”.
