North Korea has formed a new committee to combat money-laundering and the financing of terrorism.

In doing so, it may be seeking to escape punitive measures inflicted by the international community, but some observers believe that this may be a sincere – if self-interested – push by certain sectors of the North Korean regime.

The North had been taking steps toward launching its new National Coordinating Committee since it joined the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, the Asia-Pacific branch of the OECD’s Financial Action Task Force. A month ago the North Korean government wrote to the FATF stating its intent