Pyongyang, June 30 (KCNA) -- Ri Jong Chol, section chief of the National Coordination Committee of the DPRK for Anti-money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism on Thursday made public an article titled "The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering should not follow the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK".

The full text of the article is as follows:

The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) held its annual meeting in Germany from June 14 to 17, where the DPRK was designated as a "high-risk jurisdiction subject to a call for action" again.

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 and deprive it of the right to normal development.

As known, 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, kowtowing to the U.S. which blames the DPRK without any reason for the "suspicion of money laundering".

It is a shameful act of giving up the mission of an international organization entitled to ensure a sound and integral order of the international financial system and preserve impartiality.

The DPRK has nothing to do with all kinds of crimes including money laundering and sponsor of terrorism.

But as the organization repeatedly requested the DPRK to exchange opinions and "resolve mutual concerns" via direct contact, the DPRK has held direct dialogues with the organization since 2013 to iron out its incomprehension and prove before the international community the just stand of the DPRK.

Despite the interference of the U.S. and other countries displeased with the cooperation between the DPRK and the organization, the DPRK has deepened the mutual understandings with the member states and fulfilled its commitment to the international organization.

This is proved by the fact that the DPRK joined the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering as an observer in July 2014 and revised and supplemented the domestic law on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.

The DPRK also signed the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and strengthened the state mechanism for its implementation.

Nonetheless, the FATF has constantly designated the DPRK as a "high-risk jurisdiction subject to a call for action", ignoring the latter's sincere efforts but submitting to the U.S. pressure.

The U.S. openly reveals its sordid intention to arrest the independent development of the DPRK by involving an international organization in its moves to stifle the DPRK.

In 2016, the U.S. forced member states to impose financial sanctions on the DPRK according to the anti-DPRK "sanctions resolution" of the United Nations Security Council under the signboard of "countering the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction". And in 2018 when the DPRK directed all its efforts to socialist economic construction, it put pressure on the FATF to take measures against the DPRK, blaming the country for having "the possibility of money laundering and financing terrorism".

This is nothing but a barbaric and impudent behavior peculiar to the U.S.

The organization should give a definite answer if it is really trying to protect the international financial system by following such moves of the U.S., which tries to isolate the dignified DPRK in the international community and abuse the international financial system for realizing its wild ambition for hegemony.

In fact, it is none other than the U.S. that should be included in the list of "high-risk jurisdiction subject to a call for action" first of all.

Today, the U.S. is the main culprit of illegal money laundering, the chieftain of world illegal dealings, the ring leader of international terrorism and the chief criminal state of destroying peace and stability as it has supplied money and lethal equipment to terrorists and anti-government organizations across the world, even training them and inciting them to violence and homicide.

The FATF has to examine itself seriously from the impartial and objective viewpoint.

The DPRK remains unchanged in its stand to contribute to the activities of the organization for combating money-laundering and financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

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, in this viewpoint. -0-

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