Chinese firm charged with plotting to evade N. Korea sanctions
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges Monday against a Chinabased company and four of its executives for conspiring to evade U.S. economic sanctions that target North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programs.
The Treasury Department on Monday blacklisted the same firm, Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co., and the individuals, alleging in a statement that the firm has provided financial services to a North Korean firm that is sanctioned, Korea Kwangson Banking Corp.
International concern over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs is deepening following its fifth and largest atomic test explosion this month. That’s fueling worries that North Korea is moving closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that could one day strike the U.S. In a statement Friday, the North threatened to attack Guam, home of the U.S. B-1 bombers that conducted simulated runs last week over the Korean Peninsula.
Last week, Chinese authorities said they were investigating Hongxiang, based on the North Korean border. Police and China’s foreign ministry said the company was suspected of unspecified “serious economic crimes.” That was an unusually explicit announcement for Beijing, whose dealings with the North are shrouded in secrecy, in a sign of growing frustration with its traditional ally.
China agreed in March to the stiffest U.N. sanctions yet that limit trade with the North. It has tightened controls on cross-border flows of goods, and a South Korean newspaper reported Monday that Chinese authorities are also investigating Korea Kwangson Banking Corp., but that hasn’t allayed suspicions that North Korea can still conduct illicit business through China. U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibit nuclear weapons development by the North and ballistic missile activity.
The Treasury Department also this year announced sanctions against Iranian officials and engineers named two who had “traveled to North Korea to work on an 80-ton rocket booster being developed by the North Korean government.”