U.S. sanctions company over involvement with North Korea

WASHINGTON - The United States on Tuesday imposed financial sanctions on a company in Iran that is accused of involvement in North Korea's missile proliferation network.The Treasury Department moved against Hong Kong Electronics, a company located in Kish Island, Iran. The action means that any bank accounts or other financial assets found in the United States belonging to the company must be frozen. Americans also are prohibited from doing business with the firm.

It is the latest move by the United States to keep pressure on Pyongyang, whose nuclear ambitions have ratcheted up global tensions.

The designation came as U.S. envoy Philip Goldberg, who is in charge of coordinating implementation of sanctions against North Korea, left for talks Thursday and Friday in China on ways to deal with the North. He was accompanied by senior officials from the Treasury and Defense Departments and the White House.

A new U.N. resolution in the wake of a North Korean nuclear test in May seeks to stop the North's trading of banned weapons by requiring U.N. member states to request inspections of ships suspected of carrying prohibited cargo.

China's cooperation in enforcing sanctions against its neighbor is seen as crucial to increasing pressure meant to push North Korea to return to nuclear disarmament talks.

The Treasury Department said Tuesday that Hong Kong Electronics "has transferred millions of dollars of proliferation-related funds" to North Korea's Tanchon Commercial Bank and Korea Mining Development Trading Corp. The United States has previously moved to financially isolate those two companies, alleging that they have supported the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Hong Kong Electronics "has also facilitated the movement of money from Iran to North Korea" on behalf of Korea Mining, an arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons, Treasury said. Tanchon, a commercial bank based in Pyongyang, is the financial arm of Korea Mining, the department said.

"North Korea uses front companies like Hong Kong Electronics and a range of other deceptive practices to obscure the true nature of its financial dealings, making it nearly impossible for responsible banks and governments to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate North Korean transactions," said Stuart Levey, the department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Just a few weeks ago, the department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network warned U.S. banks that North Korea might try to skirt financial sanctions by using various "deceptive practices."

The warning was aimed at making sure North Korea does not evade U.N. sanctions intended to prevent the financing of nuclear, ballistic missile and other weapons of mass destruction programs or activities.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered the deployment of a ground-based, mobile missile intercept system and radar system to Hawaii amid concerns the North may fire a long-range missile toward the islands, about 4,500 miles away. North Korea launched a second nuclear test on May 25 that heightened global tensions.

Also Tuesday, the State Department moved to freeze the assets of North Korea's Namchongang Trading Corporation and ban it from dealing with any American.

The State Department described NTC as a "nuclear-related company in Pyongyang" that has been "involved in the purchase of aluminum tubes and other equipment specifically suitable for a uranium enrichment program since the late 1990s."

___

Associated Press writer Foster Klug contributed to this report from Washington.