Counterintelligence

...is the title of a new paper I just published at the King's College London at Project Alpha. A series of allegations made in June 2016 has re-awakened the issue of Pakistani nuclear cooperation with North Korea. These allegations, published by an Indian news agency, state that Pakistani authorities have continued to supply nuclear-related material to North Korea, in violation of sanctions. Project Alpha sought to substantiate or otherwise the allegations utilising open source information. The purpose of this case study is to set out what steps were taken and what information was validated such that follow-on study might be undertaken, should further information become available that could allow a conclusion to be drawn about the validity of the allegations. This paper wouldn't be possible without the great ressources and the kind atmosphere at  Project Alpha! 

Regarding the  Panama Papers the next weeks seems to become interesting. But one can say that some of the until now mentioned entities are not so unknown or even shrouded in absolut secrecy: Take the company which is seen now as pure evil and responsible for the activities of the bad guys around the world: Mossack Fonseca . Nearly all newspaper talk about an "unknown", "secret", "hidden" company, somewhere located in the more shady corners of the world. But is this true? As far I can trust my own database I already found entries and documents e.g. from 2000, when Mossack Fonseca was enlisted in a directory of "Banking, Trust & Financial Services": In the face of successfull business no wonder that in 2003 a worker of the company came to this statement: There are a lot of more entries to find and I only came to those I find in my own database. Some of them were already leaked or hacked years ago and also the name the companies and

When you are in North Korea and you want to phone someone in North Korea you may be interested in Orascom Telecom and Media Technology, the Egypt company which is struggling somehow with Cheo Technology or CHEO Technology JV Company Hq, to be precise. Cheo uses the name of Koryo Link. The old times, when Orascom was the dominant business partner, are obviously gone and so one can read this: Koryolink Sales & Customer Service Center, CHEO Technology JV Company Hq. No words anymore about Orascom. First it was difficult to to find their office place, but then...: And more detailed: A helpful remark: A few minutes away is a restaurant where you can eat dog meat – if you like it and will not be nauseated by the smell during it is cooked. Obviously you can buy the things you are familiar from any other country in the world:   While getting a contract as a customer it comes to the more bureaucratic and financial aspects

More than twenty experts from all over the world take a look at one of the most mysterious and vibrant regions when it comes to intelligence and organised crime: East Asia. Scientists, journalists and practitioners describe the reasons for current developments and analyse future problems – not only for East Asia, but for Western intelligence and police agencies as well. "Asia is among the most important regions for not just for economic but also for strategic security issues. Almost 20 international experts allow exclusive and up-to-date insights into the security and intelligence world. They also focus on cyber and organised crime, both with serious impacts for Europe. The expert opinions of this study contribute notably to our to understanding of security structures, policies and mindsets as well as of those who challenge them in and out of China, Japan, Mongolia, South and North Korea." (Dr. Christian Ehler, Member of the European Parliament, 1st Vice Chair

For further information please check the publisher´s website.

….is the title of an article, Peng Wang published with me in the RUSI Journal . The concise abstract describes it: „The North Korean government has long been suspected of involvement in state-sponsored drug production and trafficking. Research in this field is hampered by the secrecy of the DPRK regime and the dearth of reliable sources. Nonetheless, using Chinese- and English-language sources, Peng Wang and Stephan Blancke look at developments over the past decade, intensified counter-narcotics co-operation between the Chinese and South Korean police forces, and the failure of the North Korean government to control private involvement in the illicit drug business, which has had an unexpected outcome: a crystal-meth epidemic. These trends expose a severe threat to Northeast Asia and the wider international community.“ For those who want to know the detail behind the business:   You can find the article here: RUSI Journal, Oct 2014, Vol. 159, No. 5 It´s an o