Clifford Chance

Trump administration heightens pressure on entities engaged in prohibited transactions with North Korea: Implications for non-US financial institutions

26 February 2018

On 23 February 2017, the Trump administration heightened its pressure on North Korea with new sanctions against 27 entities and 28 vessels either registered or flagged in North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama, and Comoros. According to US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, the US is "aggressively targeting all illicit avenues used by North Korea to evade sanctions, including taking decisive action to block vessels, shipping companies, and entities across the globe that work on North Korea's behalf." As a practical matter, the US authorities actions also increase the pressure on financial institutions to strengthen their customer and transactional due diligence and to increase the rigour of their risk management programmes.

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