US penalises two Chinese shipping companies, claims they helped North Korea evade international sanctions over nuclear programme

Washington: The United States on Thursday sanctioned two China-based shipping companies it says helped North Korea evade US and international sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme, the first such steps since US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s summit meeting collapsed last month. The US Treasury also issued an updated advisory that listed 67 vessels that have engaged in illicit transfers of refined petroleum with North Korean tankers or were believed to have exported North Korean coal. [caption id=“attachment_4359807” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The Treasury Department identified the newly sanctioned firms as Dalian Haibo International Freight Co Ltd and Liaoning Danxing International Forwarding Co Ltd, both based in China. The move prohibits US dealings with the designated companies and freezes any assets they have in the United States. The US announcement came weeks after a second summit between Trump and Kim, in Hanoi, broke down late last month over conflicting demands by North Korea for relief from tough sanctions and from the US side for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. The United States has led international efforts to press North Korea through sanctions to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. “The United States and our like-minded partners remain committed to achieving the final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea and believe that the full implementation of North Korea-related UN Security Council resolutions is crucial to a successful outcome,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement. “Treasury will continue to enforce our sanctions, and we are making it explicitly clear that shipping companies employing deceptive tactics to mask illicit trade with North Korea expose themselves to great risk.” Limbo US-North Korean engagement has appeared to be in limbo since last month’s summit breakdown. Washington has said it aims to re-engage with Kim, but North Korea has warned it is considering suspending talks and may rethink a freeze on missile and nuclear tests in place since 2017 unless Washington makes concessions. On Monday, two senior US senators called for the Trump administration to correct a slowing pace of American sanctions designations on North Korea, saying there had been a marked decline in such actions during the past year of US diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang. They pointed to a 2019 UN report which found that North Korea had continued to defy UN sanctions with a massive increase in smuggling of petroleum products and coal and violation of bans on arms sales. The Treasury statement said Dalian Haibo was targeted for dealings with Paeksol Trading Corp, a company previously designated by US sanctions on North Korea. It said Dalian Haibo shipped cargo from Dalian, China to Paeksol in Nampo, North Korea, in early 2018 aboard North Korean-flagged vessels. The statement also said Liaoning Danxing had “routinely used deceptive practices” to enable the work of North Korean procurement officials based in the European Union. The Treasury statement said evasion tactics employed by North Korea included disabling or manipulating automated identification systems, physically altering vessels, transferring cargoes between ships and falsifying cargo documentation. It said ports visited by vessels involved in ship-to-ship transfers included those in Taiwan, China, Russia and South Korea. The Treasury Department also said that in 2018, North Korean ports received at least 263 tanker deliveries of refined petroleum via UN-prohibited ship-to-ship transfers. It said that if the tankers were fully laden, North Korea would have imported 3.78 million barrels - more than 7-1/2 times the 500,000 barrels per year allowed under a UN resolution. Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said early this month that the United States would look at ramping up sanctions on North Korea if Pyongyang did not scrap its nuclear weapons program. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on 4 March he was hopeful he could send a team to North Korea “in the next couple of weeks,” but there has been no sign of direct engagement since the failed 27-28 February summit.