Conflict Minerals: HP and IBM List North Korea as a Supplier in Conflict-Mineral Reports

Jun 3, 2014 | Ian King, Bloomberg Businessweek
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A new rule requiring U.S. companies to report information about their suppliers was designed to discourage them from doing business with mines controlled by armed thugs in Africa. But the conflict-mineral filings show a startling trend happening in another continent.

Among the 1,277 U.S. companies that reported before yesterday's deadline, 68 listed the Central Bank of the DPRK in their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea — as in North Korea, as in the country run by a 31-year-old dictator who had his uncle killed last year just to prove a point. The U.S. has had economic sanctions against North Korea since 1950, and the United Nations maintains sanctions of its own to deter further development of nuclear weapons there.