Global anti-money laundering body keeps N. Korea blacklisted

SEOUL, June 26 (Yonhap) -- A global anti-money laundering task force kept North Korea blacklisted as Pyongyang defiantly pursues its nuclear and missile development programs, South Korea's financial regulator said Monday.

The Financial Action Task Force, at its annual meeting of 37 members in Spain last week, also called on member countries to apply effective countermeasures against North Korea's attempts to finance illicit weapons programs, Seoul's Financial Services Commission said in a statement.

North Korea has been under United Nations sanctions because of its nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches.

U.N. experts have said North Korea continues to evade sanctions using airlines, ships and the international financial system to purchase prohibited items for its weapons program.

In a statement released after last week's meeting, the task force said it "remains concerned by the DPRK's failure to address the significant deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime and the serious threat this poses to the integrity of the international financial system."

DPRK is an acronym of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The task force "calls on its members and urges all jurisdictions to apply effective counter-measures and targeted financial sanctions in accordance with applicable United Nations Security Council Resolutions to protect their financial sectors from money laundering, financing of terrorism and WMD proliferation financing (ML/FT/PF) risks emanating from the DPRK."
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