Chinese and U.S. officials are said to be investigating a Chinese business with ties to North Korea. The business is suspected of helping the North Korean government avoid international sanctions. Those measures are meant to punish the North for seeking to expand its nuclear weapons program. Liaoning Hongxiang Group is a large conglomerate, made up of many companies. It operates six companies that reportedly sold aluminum bars and chemicals to North Korea. Experts say the bars and chemicals have possible military uses. The companies are suspected of operating 10 ships involved in North Korea’s mineral trade, including coal. They also operate a hotel linked to a group of North Koreans who attack computers overseas. Go Myong-Hyun is a researcher with the Asan Institute for Policy in Seoul. He said the companies “are actually selling to the North Koreans dual use goods, which are explicitly forbidden by the United Nations sanctions.”
