The United States has issued another advisory on financial transactions with North Korea, designating the communist country as a jurisdiction with high money laundering and terrorist financing risks, a U.S. report said Wednesday.
The guidance to U.S. financial institutions, issued Monday by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, is based on the international money laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force’s updated list of countries with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing deficiencies, according to the Radio Free Asia report.
The watchdog under the wing of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development last month listed North Korea and Iran as strategically defaulting on their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regimes.
The task force also called for countermeasures to protect the international financial system from such risks arising from the two countries.
“U.S. financial institutions should continue to consult the existing FinCEN and the U.S. Department of the Treasury guidance on engaging in financial transactions with Iran and the DPRK,” the Monday treasury advisory said, referring to the North by the acronym of its official name.
The latest advisory followed the U.S. treasury’s two similar guidances issued in March and November last year.
Together with such advisories, the U.S. maintains a set of financial sanctions on North Korean entities and figures with the latest ones imposed earlier this year following the North’s hacking attack on the U.S. producer of the movie “The Interview.”
The film depicts a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. (Yonhap)
