The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) kept North Korea on its high-risk list Oct. 30 and called for measures against financial ties with Pyongyang, drawing a protest from North Korea’s Foreign Ministry.
The FATF’s statement urged jurisdictions to apply countermeasures. It called for ending correspondent banking links with North Korean banks, closing their branches or subsidiaries abroad, and limiting business relationships and financial transactions with North Korean persons.
The Korea Herald reported Friday, citing the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), that a Foreign Ministry spokesperson called the FATF “highly politicized” and accused it of serving what Pyongyang considers Washington’s hostile approach toward North Korea.
KCNA said the spokesperson denied that North Korea engaged in money laundering, terrorist financing, drug trafficking or currency counterfeiting, and described the accusations as inventions by the United States and its allies.
KCNA said North Korea traced its engagement with the FATF to 2013 and presented changes to domestic laws on money laundering and terrorist financing as an effort to improve financial transparency. The Foreign Ministry argued that the changes had not altered the FATF’s view that North Korea posed a risk to the international financial system requiring countermeasures.
The spokesperson said the FATF risked losing international credibility if its work remained politically driven, KCNA reported.
