WASHINGTON (AP) – New U.S. sanctions will punish eight North Korean banks and 26 bank workers living abroad, the Trump administration announced Tuesday, in the first use of new sanctioning powers granted by President Donald Trump.
The sanctions rely on an executive order Trump signed last week to target North Korea’s access to the international banking system. They come as the United Nations has also recently passed its toughest sanctions package targeting North Korea.
Trump, speaking in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, said North Korea must no longer be allowed to “threaten the entire world with unthinkable loss of life.”
“All nations must act now to ensure the regime’s complete denuclearization,” Trump said.
The eight banks are all in North Korea. The Treasury Department said the 26 individuals are North Korean nationals employed by those banks. Of the 26, 19 of them live in China, while three live in Russia and two each in Libya and the United Arab Emirates.