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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un conducts on-the-spot guidance at the Sungri Motor Plant in Tokchon, South Pyongan Province on Nov. 21. On this day, the US Treasury Department announced it was imposing new sanctions on North Korea following its re-designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. (AP/Yonhap News)
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The Treasury Department also announced sanctions on three Chinese trade companies
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Nov. 21 against individuals and groups involved in North Korean imports and exports, including Chinese trade companies and North Korean shipping companies and vessels. The move comes one day after Trump announced North Korea was being re-designated a state sponsor of terrorism for the first time in nine years. The US Treasury Department announced that day that it was sanctioning one person, 13 institutions, and 20 vessels to prevent illegal funds from reaching North Korea’s nuclear and missile development programs. Three of the Chinese companies targeted were trade businesses: the Dandong Economy & Trade Co., Dandong Xianghe Trading Co., and Dandong Hongda Trade Co. The companies in question were involved in trading of notebook computers, anthracite, iron and iron ore, lead ore, and zinc, the department said. An investigation showed the companies traded in US$700–800 million worth of goods between Jan. 2013 and Aug. 2017. Also targeted for sanctions was Chinese national Sun Sidong and Dandong Dongyuan Industrial Co., the company where he serves as president. Sun and his company exported items related to nuclear reactors to North Korea, including vehicles, electronic equipment, and aluminum, the department said. Nine North Korean groups were designated for sanctions. In addition to workforce dispatching company the Korea South-South Cooperation Corporation, they included eight groups related to shipping and trade, including two government agencies, the Maritime Administration Bureau and Ministry of Land and Marine Transport; Rungrado Shipping Co., a trade company; and Korea Rungrado Ryongak Trading Co. Twenty vessels owned by North Korean shipping companies were also targeted for sanctions. The North Korean and Chinese individuals and groups subject to the sanctions are subject to freezing of US assets and a ban on transactions with US citizens. But given their relatively small scale and near-total lack of business connections to the US, the effect of the sanctions is predicted to be minimal. The 20 vessels targeted by the sanctions are prohibited from entering US ports. With little to no likelihood that any of them would attempt to do so, the move is being read as indirect pressure on other countries to adopt similar bans. Meanwhile, Trump reported speaking “very strongly about North Korea” in a telephone conversation the same day with Russian President Vladimir Putin. By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
