US blacklists Chinese bank over supporting North Korea’s illegal ballistic missile program financially

NewsBharati    03-Nov-2017
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Washington, November 3: The Trump administration on Thursday took a strict action against Chinese bank accusing it of helping North Korea. Notably, The United States has blacklisted a China's Bank of Dandong from its financial system accusing it of helping North Korea develop its illegal ballistic missile program.

 

The United States Treasury investigators said that the Bank of Dandong provided more than $130 million to North Korea to develop ballistic missile program despite strict international sanctions. Treasury investigators discovered around 17 percent of the transactions it facilitated via US banks were with companies linked to North Korea which has been blacklisted by the UN.

On the other side, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, “Today’s actions will better protect the US financial system from illicit schemes used by North Korea to evade sanctions and finance its weapons programmes. “Banks and businesses worldwide should take note that they must be vigilant against attempts by North Korea to conduct illicit financing and trade,” he added.

The US Department of the Treasury said in a statement that it also issued an advisory "to further alert financial institutions to schemes commonly used by North Korea to evade US and United Nations (UN) sanctions, launder funds and finance the North Korean regime’s weapons programs."

The ban on China’s Bank of Dandong comes just days before Donald Trump will travel Beijing as part of a 12-day Asian tour. The highly anticipated meeting between the US President and Chinese president Xi Jinping is expected to focus on trade and how to deal with North Korea.

Importantly, Washington had alerted other businesses in June that it plans to take the action, but it finally came into effect just ahead of US President Donald Trump's Asian tour. US President Trump has already demanded that Beijing should do more to push its neighbour North Korea to stop efforts to build a nuclear-armed missile capable of reaching American cities.

BACKGROUND:

North Korea always threatens the United States and Japan with its nuclear weapons programme and testing of ballistic missiles. Therefore, the United States financially blocked North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme and testing of ballistic missiles. The Trump administration with an aim to pressurize North Korea and its allies has already announced economic sanctions against Pyongyang, blacklisting many banks and individuals in several countries.