NEW YORK :The US treasury department has blacklisted a Singapore-based shipping company for allegedly supporting a North Korean firm accused of illicit weapon shipments.
Financial sanctions were announced against Senat Shipping Company and the company’s president, Leonard Lai. The vessel Dawnlight, in which the company has an interest, was also sanctioned.
US citizens are banned from doing business with entities on the blacklist.
Treasury said Senat had ties to a North Korean firm, Ocean Maritime Management Company (OMMC), that operated a ship seized by Panamanian authorities in 2013 for carrying undeclared military equipment from Cuba hidden under a load of sugar.
The department alleged Senat arranged the purchase, repair, certification and crewing of vessels for OMMC.
“Arms shipments transported by OMMC serve as a key resource for North Korea’s ongoing proliferation activities. Sales from these shipments contribute to North Korea’s other illicit programs,” a government spokesman said in a statement.
“We are working to make it as challenging as possible for North Korea to continue its unlawful behavior by actively targeting anyone or any business that supports these illicit arms transfers,” he said.
Treasury also added aliases of the North Korean firm to its sanction list, reporting the company had continued to operate through front companies and representative offices despite being sanctioned by both the US and the United Nations in July 2014.
A UN report released in February found in the months after the sanctions were imposed, 13 of the 14 ships controlled by OMMC changed their owners and managers, “effectively erasing” the company from a database kept by the International Maritime Organization.
International aid-for-disarmament negotiations with North Korea have been stalled for seven years. Despite a gradual tightening of international sanctions during that period, there’s little sign it has succeeded in curbing North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
