North Korean Banks

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The Wall Street Journal has reported that North Korean banks on the U.S. blacklist still appear in the international payment network. Find out more in this report.

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In 2013, the U.S. Treasury Department placed the Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea on the list of organizations subject to economic sanctions. In December last year, three more banks were added to the list: Kumgang Bank, Koryo Global Credit Bank and North East Asian Development Bank. The United States took these measures unilaterally in line with an executive order on preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. However, The Wall Street Journal has reported that the four sanctioned banks are still in the international payment network of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication or SWIFT. The newspaper wrote that the sanctioned banks have not been expelled from the international payment network yet because the pressure from the international community on North Korea has not worked out perfectly.

[Soundbite] Cory Gardner(Pacific & International Cybersecurity Policy)

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication recently deactivated North Korea's Chosun Daesong Bank, Kwangson Banking Corporation and Dongbang Bank. They are all subject to the UN Security Council sanctions. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which cooperates with the European Union, has no obligation to comply with U.S. sanctions. But these points to the need for the international community, including the United States and the European Union, to cooperate on a higher level and further tighten sanctions against North Korea amid the growing nuclear and missile threat.