The proposal comes from several experts. The banks in question would be laundering North Korea’s money. The United States admits that it failed to apply punitive measures. However, sanctioning Beijing’s banks may have catastrophic effects globally. Pyongyang resorts to various tricks to circumvent the restrictions.
Seoul () – The idea is to impose punitive measures on Chinese banks that help North Korea to evade international sanctions for its atomic and missile program. It is a “nuclear” proposal formulated by several experts in the face of the failure of the sanctions regime promoted by the United States, and adopted by the United Nations, to stop Pyongyang’s rearmament.
The restrictive measures and the moratorium on nuclear tests and ballistic missile tests – unilaterally decreed by the Kim Jong-un regime in 2017 – have not stopped North Korea’s military ambitions. Since the beginning of the year, Kim has ordered a record number of missile tests and there is speculation that he is preparing a new nuclear test.
According to calculations by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in January 2022 Pyongyang had some 20 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, and would possess enough fissile material for 45-55 atomic devices.
The United States admits it has failed, but says it has at least curbed Kim’s military program. Washington is convinced that Chinese banks are laundering North Korean money. Those who propose a coup against these entities point out that in periods when sanctions were applied systematically, North Korea was more willing to negotiate.
Critics of this solution, however, warn that excluding the big Chinese banking institutions from the international financial system would have catastrophic consequences for the entire world.
North Korea is isolated from the international community (with the exception of China and, to some extent, Russia), and subjected to international sanctions since 2006. Analysts point out that the North Koreans are able to circumvent the restrictions thanks to the help of China and Russia, but also because since mid-2018 – when Donald Trump unsuccessfully opened negotiations with Kim – the United States has in practice blocked its application.
According to the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), a research institute affiliated with the National Defense University in Washington, the North Koreans resort to selling weapons and missile technology to finance their military spending. The main recipients of these transfers are Iran, Sudan and the Houthi rebels – Tehran’s allies against the Saudis – in Yemen.
Other sources of financing are foreign currency counterfeiting and drug trafficking, which INSS investigators say make Pyongyang a “quasi-criminal” enterprise rather than a legitimate nation-state. To feed the regime’s coffers, Kim also authorizes cyberattacks against financial institutions in other countries.
