Financial Watchdog Maintains Sanctions Against Pyongyang - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - An international watchdog has decided to keep the toughest level of sanctions against North Korea over Pyongyang's failure to address illicit financial activities, Yonhap reported on Monday, citing Seoul's Financial Services Commission.

According to the Yonhap news agency, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) agreed to maintain sanctions against Pyongyang due to its alleged failure to address the money-laundering practices and combat the financing of terrorism.

The FATF members are required to close branches of North Korean banks operation on their territory and give "special attention" to transactions with North Korean business entities, the media outlet added.

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For years, North Korea has been under UN sanctions and restrictions imposed by individual states and organizations over its nuclear weapons program. The UN Security Council, in particular, adopted a series of resolutions following North Korea's first nuclear tests in 2006. The resolutions imposed an arms embargo and banned doing business with North Korea's strategic industries.

Since the beginning of the year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly expressed his commitment to denuclearization and met separately with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump to discuss resolving the crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

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