Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Friday, March 31, 2006
US freezes assets of Swiss firm over North Korea links
Thu Mar 30, 2:41 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government froze the assets of a Swiss firm that it accused of involvement in weapons proliferation by North Korea. The company, Kohas AG, and its Swiss chairman, Jakob Steiger, were also banned from trading with any American entity, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
"Kohas AG acts as a technology broker in Europe for the North Korean military and has procured goods with weapons-related applications," said the statement. Kohas and Steiger "have been involved in activities of proliferation concern on behalf of North Korea since the company's founding in the late 1980s," added the Treasury.
Kohas is an industrial supply wholesaler. Nearly half of the company's shares are owned by a subsidiary of Korea Ryonbong General Corporation, which was put on a US weapons proliferation blacklist last year.
"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, the Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
"The Treasury will continue to track and combat this network aggressively to exclude North Korea's illicit activity from the financial system," he said.
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03-30-2006, 06:33 PM
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