SEOUL, May 9 (RIA Novosti) – South Korea has cautiously welcomed China’s decision earlier this week to close the account of a major North Korean bank, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Thursday.
North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank, North Korea’s main foreign exchange bank, is suspected of involvement in funding the isolated power’s nuclear weapons program, and is subject to US sanctions, Yonhap reported.
On Tuesday it was reported that Bank of China, one the country’s top five state commercial banks, had closed the North Korean bank’s account.
On Thursday, Yonhap cited South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young as saying that Seoul was aware of this move, which it interprets as being part of the broader hardening of China’s position on North Korea, in line with the latest UN Security Council resolution on North Korea.
"Although the North's Foreign Trade Bank is not included in the Security Council resolution, I think that (the measure by the Bank of China) might be part of the Chinese government's stance," Yonhap cited Cho Tai-young as saying.
