US should slap more sanctions on Chinese banks: think tank

The United States should continue to slap sanctions on Chinese banks that support North Korea's nuclear and missile development, a U.S. think tank said Thursday.

The recommendation was made in a report by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) as Washington moves to impose fresh sanctions on Pyongyang for its defiant pursuit of a nuclear-tipped missile.

The report listed eight ways in which to tighten the screws on the communist regime.

"There are still a number of Chinese banks that transact with North Korean front companies, and it would serve the United States well to impose sanctions on some or all of them," it said. "If an initial salvo of secondary sanctions does not persuade other Chinese banks to cease transactions with North Korean front companies, the United States can impose sanctions on remaining firms with ties to North Korea."

Sanctions have so far led to no change in the North's provocative actions.

In June, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned a Chinese bank suspected of laundering money for North Korea. It also blacklisted a Chinese firm and two Chinese individuals for their ties to the North's missile and nuclear programs.

On July 4, however, the North test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching Alaska and Hawaii.

"Any aggressive U.S. sanctions campaign against North Korea will entail friction between Washington and Beijing. This is inevitable, just as it was when the United States wielded secondary sanctions to compel China to reduce its trade with Iran," the CNAS said. "A framing objective of U.S. policy should be to keep open lines of communication with China, ensuring that Beijing is not taken off guard by any aggressive U.S. sanctions actions."

China is the only major ally of North Korea and accounts for about 90 percent of its official trade. Beijing also supplies most of North Korea's crude oil.

"Washington should quietly telegraph to Beijing that if North Korea's nuclear development reaches a certain threshold, military force might be the only tenable U.S. option," the report added. "China may not like tough sanctions against North Korea, but it surely prefers sanctions to an outbreak of violence on the Korean Peninsula. Such signaling may help China understand that undermining sanctions would not serve its interests." (Yonhap)