Posted on 08/01/2006 7:12:26 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
US mulls reimposing economic sanctions on N Korea over missiles
By Krishna Guha in Washington
Published: July 31 2006 03:00 | Last updated: July 31 2006 03:00
The US is considering the reimposition of a full suite of bilateral economic sanctions against North Korea following its recent missile tests, a senior US official has said.
The sanctions - including a travel ban, a broad trade ban and restrictions on investment and remittances - were lifted in 2000 after Pyongyang agreed to a missile test moratorium.
ADVERTISEMENT Stuart Levey, under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Treasury, told the Financial Times: "We are thinking about what measures we should impose in response to the missile tests."
Reintroduction of the sanctions lifted six years ago was "one of the things being considered", he said.
The US launched a crackdown last year on suspected counterfeiting and money laundering by Pyongyang, beginning with action against a bank in Macao, Banco Delta Asia (BDA), where $24m (£12.9m) of North Korean money has been frozen since September.
The campaign led to North Korea's decision in November to pull out of six-party talks on its nuclear programme. The US stance has hardened further since Pyongyang's widely condemned test-firing of long-range missiles in July.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Levey, who is in charge of the Treasury's investigations into Pyongyang's illicit financing operations, said the US believed that North Korea's leaders might be hiding "significant amounts" of money derived from suspect activities in banks around the world, including Europe.
He said the US would "encourage financial institutions to carefully assess the risk of holding any North Korea-related accounts". He added: "Given the regime's counterfeiting of US currency, narcotics trafficking, and use of accounts worldwide to conduct proliferation-related transactions, the line between illicit and licit North Korean money is nearly invisible."
Mr Levey praised China for the recent move by Bank of China, the country's second largest bank, to freeze North Korean accounts in its Macao branch.
However, he expressed concern over the potential for money-laundering by North Korean and other entities through the casino industry in Macao. "Macao's casino sector has been a real concern," he said. "It still is."
The Treasury under-secretary said China had acted "responsibly" in freezing accounts.
He hailed the recent UN Security Council resolution on North Korea for taking what he said was a "historic step" requiring all nations to put in place financial controls to prevent dealings with entities linked to Pyongyang's proliferation efforts.
He said these measures would "completely isolate from the financial system and cut off from all financial resources entities involved in North Korea's WMD programme and its missile programme".
He refused to put a timeframe on the US investigation into BDA.
Mr Levey also dismissed reports that he had asked South Korea to suspend Kaesong and Kumgangsan, its two landmark commercial projects in the North, saying he had simply urged Seoul to be "vigilant" that they were not used to advance Pyongyang's illegal activities.
This is a veiled threat to all financial institutions in the world. They must be afraid.
Ping!
After shutting down their bank accounts.:)
Wow, this sure is tougher than Madelaine Halfbright, huh..?
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