Global Geopolitical Series: U.S. sanctions Chinese and North Korean companies/vessels/individual

Last night, the U.S. Treasury announced fresh new sanctions against China and North Korea to exert further pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambition and to pressure China into severing ties with its secluded neighbor. The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctioning one individual, 13 entities, and 20 vessels. The department announced that these new sanctions are aimed at disrupting North Korea's illicit funding of its unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile programs and these sanctions target third-country persons with long-standing commercial ties to North Korea, as well as the transportation networks that facilitate North Korea's revenue generation and operations. 

U.S. treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the official statement, “As North Korea continues to threaten international peace and security, we are steadfast in our determination to maximize economic pressure to isolate it from outside sources of trade and revenue while exposing its evasive tactics…..These designations include companies that have engaged in trade with North Korea cumulatively worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  We are also sanctioning the shipping and transportation companies, and their vessels, that facilitate North Korea's trade and its deceptive maneuvers."

Details of Chinese companies sanctioned:

• Dandong Kehua Economy & Trade Co., Ltd., Dandong Xianghe Trading Co., Ltd., and Dandong Hongda Trade Co. Ltd.
• According to the Treasury Department, these above-mentioned companies cumulatively exported approximately $650 million worth of goods to North Korea and cumulatively imported more than $100 million worth of goods from North Korea.
• Sun Sidong and his company, Dandong Dongyuan Industrial Co., Ltd. (Dongyuan)

Details of North Korean (DPRK) shipping and trading companies and Vessels sanctioned:

• Korea Rungrado Shipping Company and its vessels PU HUNG 1, RUNG RA DO, and YANG GAK DO;
• Korea Rungrado Ryongak Trading and its vessels RUNG RA 1 and RUNG RA 2;
• Yusong Shipping Company and its vessels WON SAN 2, ZA RYOK 2, 7-28, YU SONG 12, and YU SONG 7;
• Dawn Marine Management Co. Ltd and its vessels JANG GYONG, KUM SONG 3, KUM SONG 5, KUM SONG 7, and KUM UN SAN 3;
• Korea Daebong Shipping Company and its vessel RAK RANG;
• Korea Kumbyol Trading Company and its vessels KANG SONG 1, KU BONG RYONG, SO BAEK SAN, and RYE SONG GANG 1.

The Treasury also targeted North Korean overseas Labor revenue.