U.S. targets North Korea's missile, nuclear activities

By Arshad Mohammed and Nancy Waitz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it had cracked down on companies involved in North Korea's suspected missile proliferation and in purchases of equipment that could be used in a nuclear weapons program.

In a move to enlist China in tightening the screws on North Korea, the United States said Philip Goldberg, its envoy for coordinating arms and other sanctions against North Korea under a recent U.N. resolution, would leave for Beijing on Tuesday.

The steps are part of a push to get tough with North Korea, which conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 and which has ceased carrying out a 2005 agreement to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits.

The Treasury and State Departments said they had targeted Iran's Hong Kong Electronics and North Korea's Namchongang Trading Corp under an executive order that would freeze their U.S. assets and bar U.S. firms from dealing with them.

The move appeared aimed at isolating the companies from the U.S. financial and commercial systems and, by extension, from other countries' banks and corporations who may resist doing business with them out of fear of falling afoul of U.S. laws.

It was not immediately clear whether either company actually has any U.S. assets that could be frozen.

The U.S. Treasury said that it had targeted Hong Kong Electronics, which is located in Kish Island, Iran, because it had transferred millions of dollars of proliferation-related funds to North Korea from Iran.

'FRONT COMPANIES'