New York, Sep 21 (EFE).- President Donald Trump said here Thursday that the United States would take additional steps to punish companies for doing business with North Korea.
“Today I’m announcing a new executive order, just signed, that significantly expands our authority to target individual companies, financial institutions, that finance and facilitate trade with North Korea,” he told the press.
“Foreign banks will face a clear choice: do business with the United States or facilitate trade with the lawless regime in North Korea,” Trump said before a meeting at UN headquarters with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
“For much too long North Korea has been allowed to abuse the international financial system to facilitate funding for its nuclear weapons and missile programs,” Trump said.
The president said that under the new order, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will have the “discretion to target any foreign bank knowingly facilitating specific transactions tied to trade with North Korea.”
“The (North Korean) regime can no longer count on others to facilitate its trade and banking activities,” Trump said.
The goal of the US is the “complete denuclearization of North Korea,” the president said.
He went on to say that he had learned of an order from the Chinese government to the country’s banks to suspend dealings with North Korea.
“I’m very proud to tell you that as you may have just heard moments ago, China, their central bank has told their other banks – that’s a massive banking system – to immediately stop doing business with North Korea,” Trump said.
“Again, I want to just say and thank President Xi of China for the very bold move he made today. That was a somewhat unexpected move and we appreciate it,” the US leader said.
China is North Korea’s principal trading partner and ally, but Beijing has voted for a succession of UN Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions on Pyongyang over its nuclear-weapons and missile programs.