N. Korea slams global anti-money laundering body over 'high-risk' blacklist

SEOUL, June 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea lambasted an intergovernmental anti-money laundering body Thursday over its recent decision to keep the country on its list of "high-risk" jurisdictions, accusing the organization of following the U.S.' "hostile policy" against it.

During its plenary meeting in Berlin from June 14-17, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decided to maintain North Korea and Iran on the list of "high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action," defined as having significant deficiencies in countering money laundering, terrorist financing and financing of proliferation.

"This is an unjust behavior of the organization overtly following the anti-DPRK policy of the U.S. which tries to disgrace the image of the DPRK," said Ri Jong-chol, section chief of the North's National Coordination Committee for Anti-money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism, in an English-language article carried by the Korean Central News Agency. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"The organization has run a racket of including the DPRK in the list of 'high-risk jurisdiction subject to a call for action' just like an annual event since it designated the DPRK as an 'extremely dangerous state threatening the international financial system' in 2011," Ri said. "I hope that the true cooperative relations with the organization will recover, and advise the FATF not to follow the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK."

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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