North Korea’s Illicit Networks: Policy Options and Analyses

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies hosted a lunch conversation on North Korea on Tuesday, June 13 on Capitol Hill.

As Washington weighs responses to North Korea’s continued missile tests and increased aggression, FDD hosted an expert briefing to discuss policy options available to Congress and the Trump administration. The discussions, featuring David Cohen, former deputy director of the CIA, Representative Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Anthony Ruggiero, former Treasury and State official and FDD Senior Fellow, and Varun Vira, Chief Operating Officer of C4ADS, focused specifically on illicit finance, the North Korea-China nexus, and sanctions implementation.

Recent research has shown that sanctions to date have failed to halt illicit financial transactions being conducted between North Korea and China – activities that help fund North Korea’s malign and dangerous behavior. This event will examine what further actions can be taken to prevent such illicit activity. Conversations were moderated by Jay Solomon of the Wall Street Journal and Juan Zarate, Chairman and Senior Counselor at FDD’s Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance and former Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor.