Washington, August 31: US President Barack Obama has slapped additional sanctions on North Korea aimed at choking off the regimes arms trade and illicit business taken by the government.
The sanctions are specifically targeted against Office 39 – a secretive branch of the North Korean government that manages slush funds and raises money for the leadership, including by trafficking drugs.
These sanctions also targets North Korea’s infrastructure for importing and exporting conventional arms – Green Pine Associated Corporation and its parent, the Reconnaissance General Bureau and the bureau’s commander, Lieutenant General Kim Yong Chol.
Other entities include two trading firms, Korea Taesong Trading Company and Korea Heungjin Trading Company, that allegedly act on behalf of North Korean arms dealer KOMID in deals involving Iran and Syria.
–PTI