CHINA/FOREIGN POLICY/NORTH KOREA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration is moving toward unilaterally tightening sanctions on North Korea, targeting Chinese companies and banks the U.S. says are funneling cash into Pyongyang’s weapons program.
Sharper rhetoric from high-ranking U.S. officials since North Korea’s July 4 ballistic missile test and recently unsealed court filings offer clues that the White House is ready to use its own powers to constrict the flow of cash to Kim Jong Un’s regime. U.S. officials have expressed a preference for collective action through the United Nations and support from China.
The Justice Department, in a federal-court case that was partly unsealed last week, pointed to ‘offshore U.S. dollar accounts’ associated with a network of five companies linked to Chinese national Chi Yupeng. That included one of the largest importers of North Korean goods into China, Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material Co.
Citing sources that included two North Korean defectors, the Justice Department said the so-called Chi Yupeng network hid transactions that helped finance North Korea’s military and arms programs.”
-Ian Talley, “U.S. Prepares to Act Alone Against North Korea,” The Wall Street Journal online, July 10, 2017 10:50pm