The US has said it will blacklist more North Korean entities and individuals within two weeks to cut off money flowing to its leaders through the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction and counterfeit and luxury goods in violation of UN resolutions.
“We’ll have more to say on the specific steps that will be taken in the next couple of weeks,” State Department spokesman, Philip Crowley, said. “There will be additional State and Treasury designations of entities and individuals supporting proliferation, subjecting them to an asset freeze; new efforts with key governments to stop DPRK trading companies engaged in illicit activities from operating in those countries and prevent their banks from facilitating these companies‘ illicit transactions.”
DPRK stands for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea.
Crowley said that the US will not only use existing measures like the Patriot Act, which “gives us the ability to go after known North Korean counterfeiting in money”, but also establish “new executive authorities”.
“It is to interrupt programmes and funding that enable them to conduct these illicit activities: conventional arms exports; counterfeiting; drug trafficking,” he said.
Crowley was following up on remarks by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said earlier in the day that Washington will impose new financial sanctions on North Korea in response to the North’s torpedoeing of a South Korean warship. The steps also are intended to press the impoverished nation to abandon its ambitions for nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea said Thursday the new US sanctions will violate a UN statement issued after the sinking of a South Korean warship.
Ri Tong-il, a spokesman for the North Korean delegation at regional security talks in Viet Nam, said the measures announced Wednesday by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were “in violation” of the July 9 presidential statement of the UN Security Council.
Ri added that imminent naval exercises with South Korea also violated the UN statement following the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in March, with the loss of 46 lives.
The UN condemned the attack as a threat to regional peace and called for “appropriate and peaceful measures” against those responsible.
It welcomed Seoul‘s restraint and called for direct talks to settle disputes on the peninsula peacefully.
The UN expressed deep concern at the findings of the Seoul-led multinational investigation team, but noted the North’s denial of responsibility and did not apportion blame -- a result hailed as a “victory” in Pyongyang.
North Korea denies any role in the sinking of the Cheonan.
During her visit to Seoul on Wednesday, Clinton took note of Washington’s freezing of more than US$25 million in North Korean accounts in Banco Delta Asia in 2005. The US designated the Macau bank as an entity suspected of helping North Korea launder money it earned by circulating counterfeit $100 bills called supernotes.
“We did get some action from the North Koreans as a result of these steps that were taken at that time,” she said.
A diplomatic source in Washington, however, said, “I don‘t think Washington will single out any one foreign bank, like they did to the Banco Delta Asia. I understand they are coming up with general guidelines for financial sanctions on North Korea.”
The US lifted the freeze in early 2007 to entice the North to come back to the six-party talks. Washington officials have said the freeze effectively cut off Pyongyang’s access to the international financial system and dealt the nation a devastating blow.
Scores of North Korean entities and individuals are already blacklisted.
North Korea, however, has been evading UN sanctions, Crowley said.
“North Korean entities are adapting to the existing actions that we have been taking,” the spokesman said, noting “the abuse of diplomatic privileges” involving North Korean diplomats “convicted of smuggling cigarettes, I believe, through diplomatic channels” in Sweden recently.
“North Korea in turn has adapted their networks, created front companies, entities in various countries,” he said. “They look to see which countries have been effectively complying in enforcing UN Security Council resolutions.”
Crowley urged China to do more in effective implementation of the UN sanctions.
“In some cases we‘re seeing that on the surface it appears to be legitimate trade, but beneath the surface there’s an illicit activity that supports the programs that are in fact sanctioned under UN Security Council resolutions,” he said.
Clinton was to meet with Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi in Ha Noi on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asean Regional Forum to explain “what we have in mind here and the way forward” on issues related to North Korea as “part of our ongoing consultation with key partners to try to get North Korea to fundamentally change its current course,” Crowley said. “And to help with this effort, the special adviser for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, Bob Einhorn, will be travelling in early August to enhance our cooperation internationally.”
China has been under criticism for failing to strictly implement UN sanctions, apparently in order not to provoke its closest communist ally. North Korea is heavily dependent on China for food, energy and other necessities.
