The United States on Wednesday proposed new restrictions to close off North Korea’s access to the worldwide financial system and to prevent the reclusive communist country from using banks to launder money that could be used for its nuclear weapons program.
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The department’s previous designation of North Korean accounts at BDA as money laundering concerns in 2005 resulted in a run on the bank and a halt to global financial transactions with North Korea. “North Korea’s allies are turning their backs, but Pyongyang only needs to get China on board to effectively nullify the sanctions, and this is probably what it hopes to do”. Apart from unprecedented inspections of all cargo to and from North Korea, the resolution called on United Nations members to terminate banking relations with Pyongyang.
But some of those institutions in China do not use U.S. dollars, and North Korea may also have made some preparations from similar measures from Washington after its BDA experience.
Their case will fuel tensions with North Korea which insists the previous group of 13 women had been tricked into defecting and were being held in Seoul against their will.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met a visiting North Korean delegation today, state media reported, in an apparent attempt by Pyongyang to mend frayed ties with its powerful neighbour.
The South Korean government will continue to strengthen sanctions against its northern neighbor in order to bring about genuine denuclearization, the Foreign Ministry said.
According to a ministry official, Seoul received no description from the US of any particular country to be targeted.
North Korea accused South Korea of a “hideous abduction” in that case.
“The president that USA citizens must vote for is not that boring Hillary, but Trump, who spoke of holding direct conversation with North Korea”, said Mr Han.
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John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy In Focus described Trump as the “Dennis Rodman of American politics – quirky, flamboyant, risk-taking” and Pyongyang is hopeful he will change the “political game in the United States” and change the perception of Korean issues. The ministry said last week that some North Korean workers had recently fled their jobs in an overseas restaurant run by the North, without identifying the number or location.
