WASHINGTON: The United States slapped sanctions on Tuesday on a bank in nuclear-armed North Korea for providing services to institutions blacklisted for links to the communist nation’s illicit weapons programmes.

The Treasury said the assets of Korea Kwangson Banking Corp (KKBC) would be frozen and Americans prohibited from engaging in transactions with the bank in a bid to isolate it from the US financial and commercial systems.

KKBC was targetted for providing services to two North Korean institutions accused by the United States of being “weapons of mass destruction proliferators,” a Treasury statement read.

The institutions were Tanchon Commercial Bank (Tanchon) and Korea Hyoksin Trading Corporation (Hyoksin), a subordinate of the Korea Ryonbong General Corporation

(Ryonbong).