MALAYSIA WON'T ALLOW BANKS TO VIOLATE UN SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA - PM

PUTRAJAYA, July 10 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is looking into claims that
one of its banks has been used to channel payment in an arms sale transaction
between North Korea and Myanmar.

The country would also assist United States (U.S.) in its investigation into
the matter, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak told reporters after
chairing the National Small and Medium Enterprise Development Council meeting
here Thursday.

According to reports from South Korea, North Korea had sought payment
through an unnamed Malaysian bank for a suspected shipment of weapons bound for
Myanmar, which was being tracked by the U.S. Navy.

On Monday, U.S. envoy coordinating financial, arms and other sanctions
against North Korea under a recent United Nations (U.N.) resolution Philip
Goldberg came to Malaysia for talks.

He had told reporters that his delegation had a very good meeting at Central
Bank of Malaysia with Malaysian officials but did not say whether the suspected
violation of the U.N. sanction by a local bank had been discussed.

The U.S. would share information with other countries on any abuse of the
international banking system particularly with regard to the U.N. sanction
against North Korea to make sure that whatever trade and financial activities
that took place were legal and did not violate the U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1874, he had said.

"We are looking at the detail on it," said Najib who is also Finance
Minister when asked about the allegation.

"We don't want to be accused of doing things against the United Nations
resolutions or international norms. We don't want Malaysia, including its
banking system, to be used for those purposes," he added.

He said Malaysia would not allow the country or its banking system to be
used for transactions involving the proliferation of nuclear weapons as it did
not support the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

-- BERNAMA