The Obama administration said on Thursday it was sanctioning North Korea's Daedong Credit Bank for its role in supporting Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction program.
The U.S. Treasury said Daedong Credit Bank has been providing financial services to the Korea Mining Developing Trading Corp, or KOMID, which it said was Pyongyang's premier arms dealer, and the Tanchon Commercial Bank, or TCB, its main financial arm.
"Since at least 2007, Daedong Credit Bank has facilitated hundreds of financial transactions worth millions of dollars on behalf of KOMID and TCB," the Treasury said. "In some cases, (it) had knowingly facilitated transactions by using deceptive financial practices."
The Treasury said it was also sanctioning a Daedong front company called DCB Financial Limited, that company's representative, Kim Chol Sam, and Son Mun San, the external affairs bureau chief of North Korea's Bureau of Atomic Energy.
It said the front company had carried out international financial transactions as a way to avoid scrutiny by institutions trying to avoid doing business with North Korea.
The action generally prohibits U.S. citizens from engaging in any transactions with the entities or persons targeted, and freezes any assets they might have in the United States.
The U.S. Treasury said Daedong Credit Bank has been providing financial services to the Korea Mining Developing Trading Corp, or KOMID, which it said was Pyongyang's premier arms dealer, and the Tanchon Commercial Bank, or TCB, its main financial arm.
"Since at least 2007, Daedong Credit Bank has facilitated hundreds of financial transactions worth millions of dollars on behalf of KOMID and TCB," the Treasury said. "In some cases, (it) had knowingly facilitated transactions by using deceptive financial practices."
The Treasury said it was also sanctioning a Daedong front company called DCB Financial Limited, that company's representative, Kim Chol Sam, and Son Mun San, the external affairs bureau chief of North Korea's Bureau of Atomic Energy.
It said the front company had carried out international financial transactions as a way to avoid scrutiny by institutions trying to avoid doing business with North Korea.
The action generally prohibits U.S. citizens from engaging in any transactions with the entities or persons targeted, and freezes any assets they might have in the United States.
