US expert calls for sanctioning Chinese entities over N. Korea's missile program

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Ex-senior NSC official urges Washington to push Beijing harder to cut illicit arms ties with Pyongyang

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Anthony Ruggiero, former senior official at U.S. National Security Council / Courtesy of Anthony Ruggiero

A former senior official at the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) called on the Joe Biden administration to impose sanctions on Chinese nationals, companies and banks that are aiding North Korea's procurement of components necessary for the research and production of ballistic missiles.

"Continuing the status quo on North Korea sanctions allows the Kim Jong-un regime to continue its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons development," Antony Ruggiero, a senior director of the Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said in a recent email interview with The Korea Times.

His remark comes after the U.S. Department of the Treasury on Thursday imposed sanctions on two Beijing-based North Koreans involved in the procurement of equipment and materials to support North Korea's ballistic missile program.

Ruggiero, who served as senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense?at the NSC during the Trump administration, said that the Biden administration has not imposed sanctions on the two North Koreans' Chinese counterparts, companies and banks that were involved in the transactions, because Washington did not want any possible fallout to affect U.S.-China relations.

"The administration explained that North Korea uses an 'extensive overseas network of procurement agents' including 'third-country nationals and foreign companies,' which suggests they could sanction most or all of the network if they wanted to do it," he said. "But Beijing is violating U.S. laws by aiding North Korea's sanctions evasion."

He said the U.S. government needs to be tougher and build more pressure on China to choose between the U.S. and North Korea regarding whom to do business with.

"We know that if the Biden administration presents China with a choice between helping North Korea or maintaining their access to the U.S. financial system, Beijing will stop helping North Korea," he said.

Ruggiero did not provide further details about why the Biden administration would be feeling pressure about sanctioning the Chinese entities this time. In the past, the U.S. has sanctioned several foreign nationals, including a Slovakian and several Russians, for engaging in activities that help North Korea's weapons of mass destruction program.

Wi Sung-lac, right on the screen, South Korea's former ambassador to Russia, is seen during a Korea Times forum held in October last year in Seoul. Joseph DeTrani, left, a former U.S. chief negotiator to the six-party talks, also joined the forum online. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Wi Sung-lac, South Korea's former ambassador to Russia and chief negotiator to the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program, said there may be various reasons why Chinese nationals and entities were not included in the U.S. Treasury Department's newest list of sanctions.

"It could be that the department has yet to secure hard evidence to point to which Chinese nationals or entities the North Koreans had colluded with. Or it could be that the U.S. already has sufficient information to pinpoint who they are, but delayed the timing to slap sanctions on them for certain political reasons," he said.

Wi said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's long-delayed trip to China to mend their bilateral ties could be one reason.

Blinken arrived in Beijing on Sunday for a flurry of meetings with several senior Chinese officials to "discuss the importance of maintaining open lines of communication to responsibly manage" the U.S.-China relationship, according to a State Department press release.

It added, "He will also raise bilateral issues of concern, global and regional matters and potential cooperation on shared transnational challenges."

U.S.-China relations are already dangerously tense as the two sides have clashed over several issues, including China's spy balloon that flew over U.S. territory. Therefore, sanctioning Chinese nationals ahead of Blinken's China trip could do a disservice to the U.S. goal of easing tensions with the country.

Wi said the U.S. government, whether under the Trump or the Biden administration, is unlikely to feel pressure about sanctioning Chinese people or entities as it has done before.

On Thursday, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two North Koreans, Choe Chol-min and his wife Choe Un-jong, for their involvement in North Korea's procurement of equipment and components necessary for the research and production of ballistic missiles.

The husband, who is serving as the representative of North Korea's Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS), has worked with the North's officials involved in the weapons trade, Chinese nationals and other associates to purchase and procure a range of items, including items known to be materials used in the production of ballistic missiles, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

His wife, who is assigned to the North Korean Embassy in Beijing, has previously accompanied her husband on official travel related to his work with North Korea's primary weapons trading entity and recently helped coordinate an order with one or more SANS associates for dual-use bearings that are a component used in the North's ballistic missile production, the department said.

North Korea launches the Hwasong-17 inter-continental ballistic missile, March 24. Yonhap

North Korea is believed to have financed its nuclear and missile programs with money earned from various illicit activities overseas, including cryptocurrency theft.

Ruggiero said North Korea also continues to export coal, which is against U.N. sanctions, to additionally finance its WMD programs.

He claimed that North Korea is even trying to profit from the war in Ukraine as it exports arms and related materials to Russia.

If the U.S. fails to cut North Korea's ties with international networks to illicitly import restricted materials for ballistic missiles, Ruggiero claimed that North Korea will continue to export weapons to Russia.

North Korea denied claims that it transferred arms to Russia.

But the U.S. government has confirmed that North Korea completed an arms delivery, including infantry rockets and missiles, to the Russia-backed Wagner mercenary group in November last year.