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The U.S. has announced new measures to stop North Korea¡¯s flow of money from alleged illicit activities by banning U.S. citizens and companies from using North Korean vessels. It goes into effect on May 8.
The U.S. Treasury Department in a bulletin on revised Foreign Assets Control Regulations published in the Federal Register said U.S. individuals and companies will be prohibited ¡°from owning, leasing, operating or insuring any vessel flagged by North Korea." The legislation applies to all U.S. citizens and permanent residents anywhere in the world, as well as all companies and organizations based in the U.S. including their subsidiaries. Penalties for breaking the new law are stiff: up to 10 years in prison, and fines of up to US$250,000 for an individual or up to $1 million for a company.
The Foreign Assets Control Regulations were authorized under 1950s Trading with the Enemy Act. Under the Clinton administration's 1994 Geneva Accords with the North, economic sanctions were loosened in 2000 but have now been tightened again. Japan¡¯s Kyodo news agency quoted a U.S. source as saying very few North Korean vessels dock in the United States and the new sanctions are expected to have an economic impact of less than US$1 million a year.
However, the action is seen as a symbolic gesture by the U.S. showing it is determined to keep up economic pressure on the North that started last September. Washington has blacklisted the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia as Pyongyang¡¯s primary money laundering concern and frozen the assets of 12 North Korean firms to stop the Stalinist country¡¯s alleged criminal activities including currency forgery and arms proliferation.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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