▲ North Korea
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has decided to maintain North Korea's status as a high-risk jurisdiction, or blacklisted country.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under South Korea's Financial Services Commission announced today (November 1) that this decision was made during the 35th FATF Plenary held at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) headquarters in Paris, France, from October 26 to 30.
North Korea has been classified as a high-risk country since 2011.
The FATF evaluates countries' implementation of international standards against money laundering and terrorist financing, and designated North Korea, Iran, and Myanmar as high-risk jurisdictions requiring countermeasures due to strategic deficiencies.
North Korea and Iran remained subject to 'call for action' measures, similar to the June plenary, while Myanmar maintained its status under 'increased monitoring.'
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Bulgaria, and Monaco were removed from the 'jurisdictions under increased monitoring' list of countries addressing deficiencies in their anti-money laundering regimes, bringing the total number of listed countries to 18.
The plenary saw large-scale participation from representatives of over 200 global network member countries and international organization observers, including South Korea's Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Financial Supervisory Service, and Korea Institute of Finance.
Notably, the plenary approved a new targeted review process to address implementation gaps in the virtual asset sector under FATF standards.
It decided to intensively analyze countries with significant virtual asset markets that inadequately implement international standards, and to receive implementation status reports from member countries that have not previously undergone official evaluations.
Since South Korea was not evaluated on Recommendation 15 (virtual assets) during its 4th mutual evaluation, it was included in this implementation reporting target.
The related results are scheduled to be announced at the FATF plenary in June next year.
Additionally, as a first step in the roadmap to combat global fraud, the plenary adopted a new report analyzing illicit financial flows linked to scam compounds.
Furthermore, mutual evaluation reports assessing the effectiveness of anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and proliferation financing measures, as well as the implementation of FATF recommendations, were adopted for the United States and Mexico.
FIU Commissioner Lee Hyung-joo attended the FATF Steering Group meeting and emphasized that cooperation with international organizations such as Interpol is necessary to cut off organized crime syndicates operating scam compounds.
Commissioner Lee stated, "South Korea has been freezing suspicious transactions through prompt information sharing between the public and private sectors, and operating an information-sharing platform among the private sector," and pledged active contributions to the task of proactively blocking illicit fund flows.
The next FATF plenary will be held in February next year at the OECD headquarters in Paris, France.
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