WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday sanctioned a married couple in Taiwan and two firms they run for illicit sales to a North Korean firm accused of proliferating weapons of mass destruction.

Alex H.T. Tsai and his wife, Lu-Chi Tsai Su, and their firms, Global Interface Company Inc and Trans Merits Co. Ltd., "shipped to North Korea items that could be used to support North Korea's advanced weapons program," the department said in a statement.

The shipments were made to the North Korean state firm, Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, which was designated by President George W. Bush as a WMD proliferator in 2005 and blacklisted for sales of banned equipment to Syria and Iran in 2008.

"Our action today exposes a North Korean procurement channel, and we urge governments and companies worldwide to cut this channel off entirely," Stuart Levey, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement.

The couple and their firms face a ban on doing business with U.S. individuals and a freeze of any assets under U.S. jurisdiction, it said.

Tsai was indicted last year by Taiwan prosecutors for forging invoices and illegally shipping restricted materials to North Korea, the statement said.

A Treasury spokesman declined to identify what materials and equipment the firms sold to North Korea. (Editing by Xavier Briand)

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