The United States ordered sanctions on an Iranian firm for allegedly aiding North Korea's nuclear missile program, officials said Tuesday. The US Treasury identified the firm as Hong Kong Electronics, located in Kish Island, Iran, and said it had been "providing support to North Korea's Tanchon Commercial Bank and Korea Mining Development Trading Corp."
The two North Korean entities have been designated by the United States and UN Security Council under Resolution 1718 for nuclear proliferation activities. "North Korea uses front companies like Hong Kong Electronics and a range of other deceptive practices to obscure the true nature of its financial dealings, making it nearly impossible for responsible banks and governments to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate North Korean transactions," said Stuart Levey, Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
"Today's action is a part of our overall effort to prevent North Korea from misusing the international financial system to advance its nuclear and missile programs and to sell dangerous technology around the world." A Treasury statement said Hong Kong Electronics has since 2007 "transferred millions of dollars of proliferation-related funds on behalf of Tanchon and KOMID" and has "facilitated the movement of money from Iran to North Korea on behalf of KOMID."
It said Tanchon plays a key role in financing the sales of ballistic missiles and has been involved in financing ballistic missile sales from KOMID to Iran's Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which is the Iranian organisation responsible for developing liquid-fuelled missiles.
The US action came after an underground test and subsequent missile launches by North Korea prompted the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that includes financial sanctions designed to choke off revenue to the regime. North Korea has already vowed to build more bombs and to start a new weapons program based on uranium enrichment in response to the sanctions.
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