Treasury has blacklisted two more North Korean companies under Executive Order 13,551:

The Department of the Treasury said in a statement that it “today designated Korea Daesong Bank and Korea Daesong General Trading Corporation pursuant to Executive Order 13551 for being owned or controlled by Office 39 of the Korean Workers’ Party.”

“As a result of today’s action, any assets of the designated entities that are within U.S. jurisdiction are frozen and U.S. persons are prohibited from conducting financial or commercial transactions with these entities,” the statement said. [….]

“Korea Daesong Bank and Korea Daesong General Trading Corporation are key components of Office 39’s financial network supporting North Korea’s illicit and dangerous activities,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey in a statement. “Treasury will continue to use its authorities to target and disrupt the financial networks of entities involved in North Korean proliferation and other illicit activities.”

Related: Reuters publishes this interesting Bureau 39 factbox.

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Do tell us about those elusive North Korean reformers again, Selig. _____________________________
A Chinese connection to North Korea’s HEU program:

A U.S.-based think-tank, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), had said in a report last month that North Korea had used China either directly or indirectly, as a transshipment point, to procure items for enrichment.

“Most believe that China views North Korea’s nuclear weapons program as destabilizing to the region,” the report said. “Nonetheless, China is not applying enough resources to detect and stop North Korea’s illicit nuclear trade.”

ISIS stressed there was no evidence that Beijing was “secretly approving or willfully ignoring exports” to its neighbor to strengthen the North’s nuclear weapons program.

Mark Fitzpatrick, proliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said he believed Chinese private firms and individuals, rather than state authorities, may have assisted Pyongyang.

“Chinese middlemen, undoubtedly, are a major part of North Korea’s procurement network,” he said.

Yes, I believe it’s known as “plausible deniability.”