神秘商业网络帮助朝鲜应对制裁

North Korea has embarked on a series of commercial ventures with a multibillion-dollar business network that stretches from Hong Kong to Angola as it battles to survive international sanctions, according to foreign officials and court documents.

据法庭文件和外国官员透露，朝鲜已启动一系列商业项目以求挺过国际制裁，在此过程中依靠一个数十亿美元的商业网络，该网络的触角从香港一直延伸至安哥拉。

Several of the projects, which involve industries ranging from taxis to oil exploration, have the same stylised logo: the letters KKG. It is not clear whether KKG is merely a brand or a large North Korean state-owned enterprise, as claimed by the Chinese supplier of its taxi fleet.

从出租车到石油勘探，涉及多个行业的数个项目都带有风格相同的三个字母的标识：“KKG”。尚不清楚KKG只是一个品牌，抑或如其出租车队的中国供应商所称，是朝鲜的一家大型国有企业。

But US and Asian officials say it is an important part of Pyongyang’s web of business interests, backed by a shadowy arm of Kim Jong Un’s totalitarian regime called Office 39. The US and EU have singled out Office 39 and its front companies, which lead the regime’s efforts to generate much-needed foreign currency, for sanctions designed to curb North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme and squeeze the government’s finances.

但美国和亚洲官员表示，它是平壤政权商业利益网络的重要组成部分，其后台是金正恩(Kim Jong Un)极权政府的一个神秘机构——39号办公室(Office 39)。美国和欧盟在旨在遏制朝鲜核武计划、挤压该国财政的制裁中，专门挑出39号办公室及其前台公司（这些公司负责为平壤政权获取亟需的外汇）作为打击对象。

With prices falling for the commodities North Korea exports to China and the nation’s isolation deepening as Mr Kim perpetuates his father’s brutal rule, Office 39’s activities will be more crucial to the regime’s survival.

随着朝鲜向中国出口的大宗商品价格下降，随着金正恩延续父亲的残暴统治加深该国的孤立，39号办公室的活动对于政权的生存将更为至关重要。

According to the foreign officials and court documents from Hong Kong, another of KKG’s backers alongside Office 39 is a business network known as the Queensway Group. US researchers came up with the name after tracing many of its key companies to an address in Hong Kong’s financial district.

据香港的法庭文件和外国官员透露，除了39号办公室以外，KKG的另一个后台是被称为“金钟道集团”(Queensway Group)的商业网络。美国研究人员提出这个名字，是因为他们发现该网络的很多关键公司可被追踪至香港金融区的一个地址。

Queensway companies have ridden the wave of outbound Chinese investment over the past decade. They have secured a stake in an Angolan oilfield, operated by BP, diamond interests in Zimbabwe and real estate from Manhattan to Singapore.

金钟道集团旗下的公司在过去10年借助中国对外投资的热潮大展身手。它们获得了安哥拉一个油田的一部分股份（该油田的作业方是英国石油(BP)），在津巴布韦拥有钻石权益，在从曼哈顿到新加坡的多个地方拥有房地产。

Senior Queensway figures — led by Sam Pa, a Chinese tycoon with ties to Beijing’s intelligence services — have links to top business people, the Communist Party and state-owned companies, an FT investigation last year found.

英国《金融时报》去年的一项调查发现，金钟道集团的高层人物——为首的是徐京华(Sam Pa)，他是中国的一个富豪，与北京方面的情报机构有联系——与商界高层人士、共产党和国有企业有关系。

The Queensway Group’s foray into North Korea dates back as far as 2006. Court documents show payments by Queensway companies related to a project called KKG Avenue, a plan for a pair of skyscrapers in Pyongyang. The KKG logo has since appeared on buses, 4x4s and, last year, on a new fleet of taxis in North Korea’s capital.

金钟道集团与朝鲜打交道可以追溯到2006年。法庭文件显示，该集团旗下公司所作的一些支付涉及“KKG大道”(KKG Avenue)项目，那是一个在平壤建设一对摩天大楼的计划。随后KKG标识就出现在朝鲜的公交车、4驱车上，去年起还出现在朝鲜首都的新款出租车上。

China Sonangol, a joint venture between key Queensway Group figures and the Angolan state oil company, has repeatedly tried to look for oil in North Korea, so far without success, according to the foreign officials, industry insiders and experts.

据外国官员、业内人士和专家介绍，金钟道集团关键人物与安哥拉国家石油公司合资成立的安中石油(China Sonangol)，已多次尝试在朝鲜境内勘探石油，但至今没有成功。

Jee Kin Wee, group head of legal at China Sonangol’s arm in Singapore — one of several linked companies — said his unit and KKG were “separate and unrelated”. Other Queensway companies did not respond to requests for comment.

常驻安中石油新加坡分支机构的集团法律部主管Jee Kin Wee表示，他所在的业务部门与KKG是“分开和无关联的”。该分支机构是多家相互关联的企业中的一家。金钟道集团的其他企业没有回复记者的置评请求。