BUKIT LANJAN: Yes! The kurang ajar Kim has indeed gone too far with threatening global peace …
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BUKIT LANJAN: Yes! The kurang ajar Kim has indeed gone too far with threatening global peace
This blog was spot on when it posted on Sept 11, 2017, an article titled “BUKIT LANJAN: Has the kurang ajar Kim gone too far?” (Read this for context: https://bukitlanjan.blogspot.my/2017/08/bukit-lanjan-has-kurang-ajar-kim-gone.html)
Even North Korea’s strongest ally, China is unable to tolerate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s insolent antics that are threatening global peace and possibly sparking a devastating nuclear war.
“It is heartening and a relief to the rest of the world that China has also responded significantly with stronger measures against its nuclear-armed ally, North Korea,” Gerakan Deputy Speaker Syed Abdul Razak Alsagoff said.
He said the world welcomed China’s four biggest banks’move to suspend financial transactions for North Koreans.
“It has been conducting so called missile tests, firing into the ocean. But lately, North Korea has gone too far or bolder with its tests by firing missiles over Japan’s sky and into the sea.
“Only a ‘sick’ man like Kim will jeopardise his people and country’s future that way. A hermit state like North Korea only worsens the economic sufferings of its nationals,” he added.
"China’s ‘big four’ banks suspend transactions for N. Koreans
Updated 6 minutes ago · Published on 12 Sep 2017 9:45PM
The Agricultural Bank of China is one of the nation's 'big four', whose staff have confirmed financial curbs for North Korean clients. – EPA pic, September 12, 2017.
BRANCHES of China's biggest banks have suspended financial transactions for North Koreans, employees told AFP, suggesting that Beijing has pursued stronger measures against its nuclear-armed ally than previously thought.
Staff at branches in Beijing and the border city of Yanji, a major trade and transportation hub between the two neighbours, said their banks had banned North Koreans from opening new accounts and some had even started to close existing ones.
The restrictions were imposed well before the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved, with China's blessing, new sanctions on Pyongyang yesterday, following its latest and largest nuclear test.
Employees at several branches of the country's "big four" – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank – confirmed the financial curbs for North Korean clients.
"We have frozen their accounts, which means they cannot withdraw (money)," a staff member at a Yanji branch of China Construction Bank told AFP.
"They cannot use (their accounts) in Yanji any more, as well as our services... We have already started to inform them to cancel their accounts. If they can cancel, we let them cancel. If they cannot, we will not let them use it.”
An employee at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Yanji said the restrictions began last year or the previous year.
"We also won't open new accounts now. We offer no service to them. Opening accounts or foreign currency operations, we don't offer such services to them.”
Other local bank branches said the bans had been carried out for a while, but they did not remember exactly when.
Some said they had received a written document on the ban, but others said there had only been a "verbally delivered" message.
A staff member at a Beijing branch of China Construction Bank said they received a notice in May, and North Koreans could no longer conduct transactions.
An Agricultural Bank of China employee in Beijing said North Koreans were barred from opening new accounts, but those with current accounts could carry out transactions.
Cut off nuclear funds
Zhang Liangui, a professor at the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee school, said the ban was "very normal" and in accordance with UN resolutions.
"Chinese banks restricting financial flows between (China and) North Korea is actually restricting trade on the whole," Zhang said.
"It mainly aims at limiting North Korea's foreign exchange revenue and cutting off the foreign exchange (supply) that it needs to develop its nuclear plans."
A 2013 UN Security Council resolution stipulates that member states must curb financial services or transactions that could subsidise North Korea's nuclear programmes.
China has long been accused of lax enforcement of UN sanctions on North Korea, and US President Donald Trump complained earlier this year that trade between the two countries surged in the first quarter.
In June, the US slapped sanctions on the Bank of Dandong, a Chinese bank located at the border with North Korea, which it accused of "facilitating millions of dollars of transactions for companies involved in North Korea's WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and ballistic missile programmes".
But, China has insisted that it adheres to the UN sanctions.
It suspended North Korean coal imports in February, and more recently, banned new business ventures and stopped buying iron, seafood and lead from its neighbour.
China also backed yesterday's UN resolution, which bans textile exports and restricts shipments of oil products, though it did so only after Washington toned down its original proposal to secure the backing of Beijing and Moscow. – AFP, September 12, 2017/TMI"
BRANCHES of China's biggest banks have suspended financial transactions for North Koreans, employees told AFP, suggesting that Beijing has pursued stronger measures against its nuclear-armed ally than previously thought.
Staff at branches in Beijing and the border city of Yanji, a major trade and transportation hub between the two neighbours, said their banks had banned North Koreans from opening new accounts and some had even started to close existing ones.
The restrictions were imposed well before the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved, with China's blessing, new sanctions on Pyongyang yesterday, following its latest and largest nuclear test.
Employees at several branches of the country's "big four" – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank – confirmed the financial curbs for North Korean clients.
"We have frozen their accounts, which means they cannot withdraw (money)," a staff member at a Yanji branch of China Construction Bank told AFP.
"They cannot use (their accounts) in Yanji any more, as well as our services... We have already started to inform them to cancel their accounts. If they can cancel, we let them cancel. If they cannot, we will not let them use it.”
An employee at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Yanji said the restrictions began last year or the previous year.
"We also won't open new accounts now. We offer no service to them. Opening accounts or foreign currency operations, we don't offer such services to them.”
Other local bank branches said the bans had been carried out for a while, but they did not remember exactly when.
Some said they had received a written document on the ban, but others said there had only been a "verbally delivered" message.
A staff member at a Beijing branch of China Construction Bank said they received a notice in May, and North Koreans could no longer conduct transactions.
An Agricultural Bank of China employee in Beijing said North Koreans were barred from opening new accounts, but those with current accounts could carry out transactions.
Cut off nuclear funds
Zhang Liangui, a professor at the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee school, said the ban was "very normal" and in accordance with UN resolutions.
"Chinese banks restricting financial flows between (China and) North Korea is actually restricting trade on the whole," Zhang said.
"It mainly aims at limiting North Korea's foreign exchange revenue and cutting off the foreign exchange (supply) that it needs to develop its nuclear plans."
A 2013 UN Security Council resolution stipulates that member states must curb financial services or transactions that could subsidise North Korea's nuclear programmes.
China has long been accused of lax enforcement of UN sanctions on North Korea, and US President Donald Trump complained earlier this year that trade between the two countries surged in the first quarter.
In June, the US slapped sanctions on the Bank of Dandong, a Chinese bank located at the border with North Korea, which it accused of "facilitating millions of dollars of transactions for companies involved in North Korea's WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and ballistic missile programmes".
But, China has insisted that it adheres to the UN sanctions.
It suspended North Korean coal imports in February, and more recently, banned new business ventures and stopped buying iron, seafood and lead from its neighbour.
China also backed yesterday's UN resolution, which bans textile exports and restricts shipments of oil products, though it did so only after Washington toned down its original proposal to secure the backing of Beijing and Moscow. – AFP, September 12, 2017/TMI"
N.37 LET BUKIT LANJAN SOAR WITH SYED ABDUL RAZAK ALSAGOFF
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