A leading British newspaper has raised suspicions that North Korea is using a house on the outskirts of London to finance its nuclear weapons program and raise slush funds for its leader Kim Jong-un.
 
The Sunday Times said Sunday that its investigation has found that a property in Blackheath has been registered since 2006 as the British branch of the North's state-controlled Korea National Insurance Corporation, which was placed under European Union(EU) sanctions last year.
 
The report said that the insurance firm “has operated without challenge in Britain for more than two decades and is feared to have generated tens of millions of pounds by investing and trading in property and foreign currencies.” The paper also said the firm “has separately been accused of making vast sums of money through fraudulent claims against London insurers.”
 
Former North Korean Deputy Ambassador to London Thae Yong-ho, who defected to South Korea last year, has also recently testified about the North’s activity in Britain.
 
The EU sanctions list describes the Korea National Insurance Corporation as the North’s window for raising the foreign currency needed to produce nuclear weapons, missiles and weapons of mass destruction. The EU also suspects that the insurance firm’s headquarters in Pyongyang is deeply connected to the North’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s Office 39, a secret organization which handles Kim Jong-un's slush funds.

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