July 10th, 2012

UN’s WIPO sending dual-use technology to Iran and DPRK?

The World Intellectual Property Organization has allegedly been sending “sensitive technology” to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and to Iran, if true surely a violation of US law for the US-headquartered United Nations agency, alleges House Foreign Relations chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Says Hillicon Valley:

Ros-Lehtinen said U.N. agencies have “gone out of their way” to flout the sanctions, and called for reform. To that end, the Florida Republican is an author of a bill that would change the U.N.’s funding mechanism

Cutting funding would seem to be a punishment mechanism analogous to the large fines we’ve seen private industry face for similar violations.