WASHINGTON, DC: The US Justice Department indicted 28 North Koreans and five Chinese on Thursday (May 28), for operating a money laundering ring that moved billions of dollars through global banks to avoid nuclear sanctions on Pyongyang.

The network processed more than US$2.5 billion through over 250 front companies across Thailand, Libya, Austria, Russia, China and Kuwait to evade sanctions, buy goods needed by North Korea and to enrich the suspects, according to an indictment filed in federal district court in Washington.