The Foreign Trade Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Joson Trade Bank) is

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

's primary

foreign exchange The foreign exchange market (Forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. It includes all as ...

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

, and is owned and run by the

North Korean government In the North Korean government, the Cabinet is the administrative and executive body. The North Korean government consists of three branches: administrative, legislative, and judicial. However, they are not independent of each other, but al ...

. On March 11, 2013, the United States designated the bank as falling under US

executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of t ...

13382, which applies to "proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters". The order freezes all assets, and prohibits any transactions between US entities and the bank. On May 7, 2013, the state-controlled

Bank of China The Bank of China (BOC; ) is a Chinese majority state-owned commercial bank headquartered in Beijing and the fourth largest bank in the world. The Bank of China was founded in 1912 by the Republican government as China's central bank, repl ...

announced that they would stop all dealings with the Foreign Trade Bank. China has in the past been reluctant to sanction North Korea, even though China has been very unsatisfied with North Korea's aggressive stance and pursuit of nuclear weapons. Stopping the dealing with the Foreign Trade Bank is seen as a significant signal by China to put pressure on North Korea. On August 5, 2017 the

UN Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the Organs of the United Nations, six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international security, international peace and security, recommending the admi ...

adopted Resolution 2371 expanding financial sanctions to include the bank. After UN Security Council Resolution 2094 was adopted in March 2013, several Chinese banks will not deal with the Foreign Trade Bank. The United States Department of the Treasury has designated Dandong Zhongsheng Industry & Trade Co Ltd and Korea Ungum Corporation as FTB

front companies A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gro ...

, and sanctioned the Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank for facilitating transactions for the FTB.

References

External links

Treasury Sanctions Bank and Official Linked to North Korean Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs
- US Department of the Treasury Banks of North Korea {{NorthKorea-company-stub

See also

References

External links