The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on several Chinese and Russian companies on Tuesday due to their cooperation with the North Korean regime.
The sanctions are designed to slow the development of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. But they represent an escalation of that effort, by targeting the companies that China and Russia have allowed to provide economic lifelines to a regime badly in need of funds.
“It is unacceptable for individuals and companies in China, Russia, and elsewhere to enable North Korea to generate income used to develop weapons of mass destruction and destabilize the region,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday. “We are taking actions consistent with UN sanctions to show that there are consequences for defying sanctions and providing support to North Korea, and to deter this activity in the future.”
Western powers have long struggled to implement the international sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council, chiefly due to Chinese recalcitrance. China has voted in favor of numerous sanctions packages, but carved out exceptions “for North Korean civilian and humanitarian needs.” Those loopholes have defanged the sanctions, according to the United States, because that money eventually went to the North Korean government.
“If China is not going to comply with those UN sanctions, then it’s appropriate for the United States to consider actions to compel them to comply,” Tillerson said in January during his Senate confirmation hearing.
Tillerson also has faulted China and Russia for allowing companies to hire slave labor from North Korea, providing “hundreds of millions of dollars” annually to the regime. China stepped up implementation of sanctions targeting North Korea’s coal industry, only to compensate by boosting the regime’s iron industry.
The new sanctions, which target six people and 10 entities mostly from Russia and China, seek to put a crimp in that effort.
The new sanctions designations — targeting six individuals and 10 entities, primarily from Russia and China — seek to put a crimp in that effort. They focus on mining and construction companies that work with North Korea, for instance.
U.S. authorities have accused another company on the list of engaging in money laundering on behalf of the regime; and two companies were singled out for employing overseas North Korean laborers. The designations freeze assets of the companies that are within U.S. jurisdiction, bar them from using U.S. banks, or dealing with most Americans.
“Treasury will continue to put pressure on North Korea by targeting those who support the advancement of nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and isolating them from the American financial system,” Mnuchin said.
