The U.S. Has Started Targeting Chinese Companies That Do Business With North Korea

Flags of China and North Korea are seen outside the closed Ryugyong Korean Restaurant in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China, April 12, 2016.Reuters/Joseph Campbell

Reuters: U.S. accuses Chinese company of money-laundering for North Korea

The United States has accused a Chinese-based company of acting as a front for laundering money on behalf of a sanctioned North Korean bank and has filed a complaint seeking $1.9 million from it, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday.

Mingzheng International Trading Limited has facilitated prohibited dollar transactions through the United States on behalf of the Foreign Trade Bank, a North Korean bank, and laundered the proceeds, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia said in a statement.

The $1.9 million forfeiture action "represents one of the largest seizures of North Korean funds by the Department of Justice," it said.

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WNU Editor: If this report is accurate and the U.S. follows through .... I can then say that the U.S. is becoming serious in enforcing sanctions against North Korea. And while punishing the companies that do business with North Korea is a start .... what the U.S. should do is punish the banks that do business with the companies that do business with North Korea .... by doing this you will then quickly starve the North Korean regime of the money that it needs to keep itself in power. I am sure that the Chinese are not happy where this is going .... but the U.S. administration is clearly upset on what has happened to Otto Warmbier (see previous post), and they are sending a message that doing business with North Korea will result in financial consequences. Will the Chinese "get it" .... we shall see,