North Korea files official complaint over Kouvola train incident

[Aptrgangr]

North Korea files official complaint over Kouvola train incident

The North Korean Embassy in Stockholm has filed a diplomatic note with the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, via the Finnish Embassy in the Swedish capital, on grounds of a human rights violation and actions in breach of international agreements.
According to the wording of the missive, Finnish Customs offcers and police used excessive force, including tear gas and releasing a police dog, against two North Korean couriers with diplomatic passports in an incident last week on the Moscow-Helsinki train (see linked article).
The two couriers - neither of whom spoke more than a word or two of English and certainly no Finnish - had refused to show their tickets to the Finnish conductor on the train and then had refused to open their bags for the Customs officials, and they were eventually escorted bodily from the train and were taken to Kouvola Police Station.
A call to the Foreign Ministry in Helsinki confirmed that the two men did indeed hold diplomatic immunity, and they were returned to the next train to Helsinki, from where they left for Stockholm by ferry.
The North Korean note charges that the Customs officers had forcibly tried to open the couriers' diplomatic pouches and had acted violently. The police who were called allegedly used tear gas and handcuffs to restrain the two men. Furthermore, a Finnish police dog is alleged to have bitten one of the North Korean men.
A Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tiina Myllyntausta from the Protocol Department, commented: "According to the police, they showed no documents whatsoever on the train, and they really should have produced diplomatic papers. This is not ultimately a political problem, it is purely judicial."
This is not the first occasion when there has been some friction between Finland and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea over an incident involving diplomats.
In 1976 four North Korean envoys were exposed as having carried on an illegal trade in alcohol and cigarettes in Helsinki. The business activities brought extra revenue to the embassy, and the money was used - or so it is claimed - in part to pay for the translation of works by the then leader Kim Il Sung.
Similar trafficking allegations were made at the time against North Korean diplomats stationed in Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm.
In 1983, the then North Korean Ambassador in Helsinki Ju Jae Han attempted to bribe the Centre Party stalwart and former Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament Johannes Virolainen (1914-2000), who was at the time President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Ju Jae Han had apparently travelled to Virolainen's home and handed over an envelope containing USD 5,000. North Korea wanted to ensure that the 1983 IPU Assembly would not be held in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Virolainen promptly delivered the cash to the Foreign Ministry and the diplomat was sent back home. And the IPU Assembly met in Seoul.
North Korea closed its Helsinki representation in 1999, and the country's dealings with Finland are currently handled in Stockholm.
A more comprehensive report on the disputed events of last week will be given in our weekly articles, to be published on Tuesday February 27th.

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