WASHINGTON: The United States moved to tighten the economic noose around North Korea Monday, charging and sanctioning a firm owned by a prominent Chinese businesswoman for extensive trade ties with the regime. The firm, Dandong Hongxiang, and a host of officials are accused of making up a “key illicit network supporting North Korea’s weapons proliferation,” according to Treasury sanctions tsar Adam Szubin. That could have been enough to fund North Korea’s uranium enrichment facilities, and to design, make, and test its nuclear weapons, the report said. US President Barack Obama recently met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Hangzhou, China and urged stricter implementation of UN sanctions against North Korea. China’s total imports from North Korea in August rose 16.7 percent year-on-year to $291.3 million, Customs data showed.

Source: Manila Times September 27, 2016 03:56 UTC