Trump’s Letting China’s Big Banks Launder North Korea’s Cash

The Trump administration decided earlier this year not to enforce money-laundering laws against two large Chinese banks, Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank, suspected of handling transactions involving North Korea.

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Xi’s open defiance naturally follows from Washington’s reluctance to hold his country accountable. Trump has yet to dial up the heat to its highest setting. “Chinese banks represent the last frontier in Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign,” Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told The Daily Beast. “China’s financial system is still Pyongyang’s financial lifeline, even as the Kim regime finds itself increasingly isolated.”

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