From today's guest contributor, McClatchy economics correspondent Kevin G. Hall:

            The Obama administration targeted five North Korean entities on Monday in an attempt to further isolate Pyongyang internationally.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order Monday, allowing the Treasury and State Departments to sanction North Korean individuals and entities for a range of illicit activities.

Among those directly targeted in the order were the Reconnaissance General Bureau and Lt. Gen. Kim Yong Chol, North Korea’s top intelligence arm; Green Pine Associated Corp., described as a North Korean conventional arms dealer; and Office 39 of the Korean Worker’s Party, said to be the slush-fund manager for the North Korean leadership.

Monday’s sanctions also target Korea Taesong Trading Co. and Korea Heungjin Trading Co., trading firms alleged to be fronts for procuring missile technology. The Munitions Industry Department and Second Academy of Natural Sciences were targeted for their role in ballistic missile production. Three individuals tied to the prohibited nuclear program_ Ri Je-son and Ri Hong-sop and Yun Ho-lin_ were also cited by the U.S. agencies.

The list of wrongs alleged to have been committed by Yun Ho-lin include procuring items for uranium enrichment and for involvement in purchase of “sensitive material linked to the construction of a nuclear reactor in Syria.”

Israel bombed a suspected nuclear reactor site on Sept. 6, 2007, and North Korean personnel were allegedly at the scene. Syria offered a surprisingly muted response at the time, adding to the mystery surrounding the Israeli raid.

Obama’s order Monday allows the U.S. government to seize any assets in the United States tied to the three entities and significantly, allows the seizure of assets in the United States of any entity anywhere that does business with them. This could put more pressure on Chinese and other Asian banks and financial intermediaries with U.S. operations.

In a briefing for reporters, State and Treasury officials declined to say much about Office 39, but in a fact sheet they said Office 39 had previously used Macau-based Banco Delta Asia to launder illicit proceeds for the regime. Earlier reporting by McClatchy questioned the veracity of claims that Banco Delta laundered fake US $100 bills.

The new sanctions Monday included more cautious language about North Korea’s alleged manufacture of fake $100 bills, so perfect they’ve been dubbed “supernotes.” President George W. Bush publicly accused North Korea of making the bills, but Monday’s language referred in more-guarded language to “definitive connections between the supernote and the government of North Korea.”

During the briefing, Robert Einhorn, the State Department’s special advisor on nuclear non-proliferation efforts, described as coincidence the timing of the new sanctions. They followed by days former President Jimmy Carter’s trip to Pyonyang to win the humanitarian release from prison of an American citizen who had crossed illegally into North Korea.