All of this has to do with North Korea. The sanctions state that they are intended to pressure and punish people and companies that are currently aiding other people and companies who have already been sanctioned as well as people and companies that are more directly involved. In other words, the Treasury has widened the net to include those who are helped people who have been blocked, but they’re also blocking new people they hadn’t known about before who are directly involved in North Korea’s military programs.
As mentioned, China blocked North Korean coal imports for one year. That year has come and gone, but now the Treasury is trying to block exports of North Korean coal to anywhere. They are using what’s called their Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to block those who procure large amounts of North Korean coal. That money would’ve gone to North Korea’s nuclear program, and the hope is that the money won’t get there for free and that North Korea won’t have much else to offer in exchange for money. Those blocked, or sanctioned, are DanDong Zhicheng Metallic Materials (originally translated from Mandarin), JinHou International Holdings (translated from 金猴国际控股, which directly translated means Golden Money International Holdings…always fun), and DanDong Tianfu Trade Co. Ltd.). If you’re wondering why DanDong twice, that’s because it’s a city very close the Chinese/North Korean border and also has one of the only main access points into China by land, called the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge.
I’m sure some of you know, but the prefix Sino- means Chinese.
Here’s the map:
You can’t see the bridge from this far, but it’s pretty close to bottom right of the area shaded in red. That’s DanDong (丹东). Of course, that’s North Korea on the right and South Korea bravely hanging out below. In case you’re wondering, the very top right corner of the screen is Vladivostok, very important Russian port city. It’s also where they put thousands of its own troops in support of China’s doing the same elsewhere along its border with North Korea.