They are, perhaps, the most bizarre income pipelines for North Korea’s rogue regime: giant statues and memorials scattered across Africa. And they may indicate violations of UN sanctions. Both UN and US investigators say these and other constructions are a key funding driver of Kim Jong-un’s illicit missile and nuclear programme. Some are massive: the African Renaissance Monument in Dakar stands 40m high. The one I’m standing under, just outside picturesque Windhoek, Namibia, is impressive in its own way. Granite steps slope upwards toward a triumphant bronze statue of an unknown soldier. In one hand he brandishes a Kalashnikov; in the other, what looks like a Soviet-era stick grenade. It is known as Heroes’ Acre, and the echoes of Pyongyang’s monuments are hard to miss. In Namibia, they went all in. There’s a statue of founding father Sam Nujoma grasping the country’s constitution at the entrance to the gold-tinted National Museum. Then there’s the recently constructed presidential...
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