US Increases Pressure on North Korea by Expanding Sanctions, Announcing Indictments

The US is executing an interagency effort aimed at countering North Korean actors' crimes and destabilizing behavior.

The US Treasury recently announced sanctions on fraudulent North Korean businesses clandestinely funneling funds and intelligence to the communist North Korean regime. 

According to the US Treasury, the sanctions were preceded and justified by joint investigations from the Departments of Justice (DOJ), Homeland Security (DHS),State, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Despite President Donald Trump’s alleged receptiveness to negotiating with North Korean Authoritarian Leader Kim Jong Un, the Trump administration is strictly persecuting noxious North Korean actors. 

“Treasury, as part of a whole-of-government effort,” said OFAC Director Bradley T. Smith, “will continue to hold accountable those who seek to infiltrate global supply chains and enable the sanctions evasion activities that further the Kim regime’s destabilizing agenda.”

Besides sanctions, certain North Korean citizens are also facing indictments from the DOJ and arrest reward offers from the State Department. 

“The United States will not stand idly by while North Korea profits from criminal activity to fund its destabilizing actions,” reads the arrest reward offer. 

The Treasury’s latest sanctions add to other recently imposed sanctions on North Korean entities and individuals for similar reasons. 

Previous sanctions admonished North Korean nationals working in foreign countries who allegedly remitted their earnings to North Korean authorities. 

Such workers would reportedly covertly amass data and funds for the regime’s nefarious activities, including developing nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). 

The Treasury Department alleges North Korea has thousands of such covert workers spread across the world stealing data and funneling cash back to the regime.

The workers are allegedly instructed to “obfuscate their identities, locations, and nationalities, typically using false personas, proxy accounts, stolen identities, and falsified or forged documentation” to gain access to companies.