[USFK Forums] U.S. Targets Swiss Firm for N. Korea Ties [AP]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Friday, March 31, 2006

U.S. Targets Swiss Firm for N. Korea Ties

Friday, March 31, 2006
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer1 hour, 54 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration acted Thursday to financially incapacitate a Swiss company and its president for their alleged role in helping North Korea proliferate weapons of mass destruction.

The Treasury Department's action is against Kohas AG, an industrial supply wholesale company located in Switzerland, and Swiss national Jakob Steiger, the company's president.

The action — the latest effort by the government to intensify pressure on North Korea — means that any assets belonging to this company and to Steiger found in the United States must be frozen and Americans are forbidden from doing business with them.

"North Korea's efforts to build and sell weapons of mass destruction depend on a vast network, the reach of which extends beyond Asia," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The department alleged that Kohas AG has financial ties to a North Korean company, Korea Ryonbong General Corp., that the U.S. government believes has engaged in transactions to spread weapons of mass destruction. The government ordered that company's assets frozen last year.

Nearly half of Kohas AG's shares are owned by a subsidiary of Korea Ryonbong General — called Korea Ryongwang Trading Corp., Treasury said. That company also was put on the government's blocking list last year. Steiger owns the remaining shares of Kohas AG, Treasury said.

"Kohas AG acts as a technology broker in Europe for the North Korean military and has procured goods with weapons-related applications," Treasury said in a release. "Kohas AG and Jakob Steiger have been involved in activities of proliferation concern on behalf of North Korea since the company's founding in the late 1980s."

The department didn't provide further details. Treasury's designation of the Swiss company and its president come amid rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear capabilities. North Korea declared last year that it has nuclear weapons, although the claims could not be confirmed independently.

Discussions among six nations — the United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia — over North Korea's nuclear ambitions have been stalled since November by a dispute involving financial restrictions the United States imposed on North Korea for its alleged currency counterfeiting and money laundering.

Pyongyang has said it will not return to the negotiating table unless the restrictions are lifted.



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