Industry Foreign-exchange reserves Key people O Kwang-chol (President) Owner Government of North Korea | ||
The Foreign Trade Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank, and is owned and run by the North Korean government.
On March 11, 2013, the United States designated the bank as falling under US executive order 13382, which applies to "proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters". The order freezes all assets, and prohibits any transactions between US entities and the bank.
On May 7, 2013, the state-controlled Bank of China announced that they would stop all dealings with the Foreign Trade Bank. China has in the past been reluctant to sanction North Korea, even though China has been very unsatisfied with North Korea's aggressive stance and pursuit of nuclear weapons. Stopping the dealing with the Foreign Trade Bank is seen as a significant signal by China to put pressure on North Korea.