A surprise development from the inaugural batch of conflict minerals reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in May is that nearly 65 companies—among them IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Williams-Sonoma—reported that materials they used were sourced from North Korea.
While the information doesn’t raise conflict minerals problems—North Korea, of course, is far from the war-torn Congo and the militia groups government officials created the rule to strike against—it could indicate violations of U.S. trade sanction laws and raise other supply chain problems.
