Drinks manufactured in Singapore by the famous Japanese brand Pokka are still being widely sold in Pyongyang, NK News has learned, despite Tokyo and Singapore’s ongoing total trade bans on North Korea.

Pokka Singapore has since 2012 repeatedly denied selling products to North Korea, but various beverages manufactured in Singapore under license by Pokka – including coffee, flavored milk and fruit juices – were still seen widely on sale in Pyongyang hotels, market and bars by NK News staff who visited the city last month.

The revelations come as one of its former clients currently faces 161 charges relating to DPRK sanctions violations.

Pokka Singapore’s CEO, too, was suspended in September in the wake of an internal audit, though it is unclear is the case is linked to the company’s purported links to North Korea.

A spokesperson at parent conglomerate Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage in Tokyo told NK News that the group-affiliated company in Singapore is required to adhere to a policy that stops it from directly exporting products to the DPRK and from doing business with vendors it discovers are exporting goods there indirectly.

Yet in face of Pokka Singapore’s self-proclaimed company policy and Singapore’s total trade ban to North Korea in place since November 2017, NK News learned that the company was nevertheless actively looking for resale partners there this year.

“As the political issues have gradually eased, we hoped to recover our beverage business once again in NK market. Hence, we are currently looking out for a direct distributor in NK. Would you be keen in this business?” a message seen by NK News from a Pokka Singapore representative to a trader interested in sales to North Korea said in April.

Asked why Pokka Singapore was actively seeking business in North Korea despite committing to not do so, the Tokyo office was unable to provide an explanation.

“The sender of the email was surely a Pokka International employee. But this person quit in July and so we could not confirm this person’s true intention,” the Pokka Tokyo spokesperson said by email.

Pokka’s Singapore office did not reply to an NK News request for comment on the issue, despite acknowledging sent questions on September 28.

POKKA CONTROVERSY

Pokka Singapore has been at the forefront of public attention for another reason recently: Alain Ong, a chief executive at Pokka Singapore and Pokka International, or the conglomerate’s international marketing arm, was suspended from his position in a management shake-up in September.

Singapore’s Straits Times on September 28 reported his suspension had come as a result of an internal audit at Pokka International.

But it remains unclear if it could be related to the company’s alleged involvement in North Korea trading and an ongoing Singaporean government investigation into the director of Pokka Singapore’s former client, T Specialist International and OCN (S) Pte Ltd, which were previously involved in onward distribution of canned drinks to North Korea.

NK Pro investigation in July and August last year revealed the two companies played roles in exporting various sanctioned consumer goods from Singapore to the North, including high-end liquors, designer watches, perfumes, and musical instruments for sale at boutique luxury shops in Pyongyang.

While Pokka Singapore said it had stopped allowing OCN to distribute its products in North Korea in 2012, it admitted it continued trading with its affiliate, T Specialist, as recently as July 2017, with then-CEO Alain Ong stating it was on the understanding that “the products we supply to them are to be exported to China”.

SINGAPORE STAMP

Despite since cutting ties with T Specialist, NK News analysis of Pokka Mango (left photo) and Carrot juice products (right photo) purchased in the DPRK in September 2018 show the company’s items are still somehow being distributed there.

The photos show the cans are both a “Product of Singapore,” with the item on the right “Manufactured & Distributed by Pokka Corporation (S) Pte Ltd.”

The blue canned drink on the left, however, shows the product is “Distributed by National Trading & Developing Establishment” in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Asked about the ongoing Pokka sales in Pyongyang, the spokesperson at Japanese conglomerate Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage in Tokyo said the mango juice was not intended for DPRK.

“The sales area of this product is limited by the agreement between local distributors and Pokka Singapore. Again, we will make a request to local distributors not to make any sales outside their sales areas,” the spokesperson said to NK News.

Japan has steadily enhanced unilateral sanctions against North Korea since 2006 in the wake of repeated missile and nuclear tests and currently imposes a strict total embargo on imports and exports to North Korea.

However, an official at the Trade Control Policy Division of Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) told NK News that Pokka Singapore sales to North Korea would not be illegal in Japan unless there was evidence that headquarters in Tokyo had ordered its Singapore branch to export its products there.

Featured image: NK News

Edited by Oliver Hotham