Tightening the Vice
So North Korea thinks it should be more isolated? It seems some countries agree. In the US and in your neighborhood bank
WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Bernama) - The United States is considering tightening economic sanctions against North Korea, US Department of the Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) Stuart Levey said.
However, he declined to elaborate further details, according to a news report filed by a Russia news agency, Itar-Tass.
But, Levey said that banks in Singapore, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong and Mongolia are beginning to stop business relations with Pyongyang.
“There is sort of a voluntary coalition of financial institutions saying that they don’t want to handle this business anymore, and that is causing financial isolation for the government of North Korea,” Levey said.
Furthermore, he said: “If they are counterfeiting currency or otherwise generating illicit funds, you still need a bank to put the proceeds into the financial system.”
North Korea are losing all their access points to the international financial system because of these measures and the coalition that is building, he said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe is considering tougher measures against North Korea than those adopted by Junichiro Koizumi if he becomes prime minister next month, hoping to help settle the issue of Japanese abductions, government sources said Sunday.
As prime minister, Abe would boost the power of a government task force on the abductions and push ahead with new measures for economic sanctions in cooperation with the ruling coalition parties, the sources said.
They said these plans would represent a policy shift from Koizumi’s “dialogue and pressure” against North Korea to one stressing “pressure.”
