The United States hit North Korea and Russia on Monday with new sanctions, targeting Pyongyang's financial and military support for Moscow, as well as its ballistic missile program, the U.S. Treasury has said.
The sanctions, which list North Korean banks, generals and other officials, as well as Russian oil shipping companies, are the latest U.S. measure aimed at disrupting North Korea's support to Russia's war in Ukraine.
The North Korean banks targeted include Golden Triangle Bank, one of the biggest banks in the northeastern Rason Special Economic Zone, and Pyongyang-based Korea Mandal Credit Bank, which has representatives throughout China, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
South Korea's foreign ministry separately said on Tuesday that it has blacklisted 11 individuals and 15 entities linked to illicit military cooperation between North Korea and Russia.
Pyongyang and Moscow have ramped up diplomatic and economic ties in recent years, culminating in Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to North Korea in June when the countries' leaders agreed on a mutual defense pact.
Military cooperation between the two countries has been met by international alarm, with Washington, Kyiv and Seoul condemning North Korea for sending military equipment and more than 10,000 troops to support Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
North Korea's actions, including its most recent test of a long-range ballistic missile and its deepening military support to Russia, undermine the stability of the region and sustain Putin's war in Ukraine, said Bradley Smith, acting undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
"The United States remains committed to disrupting the illicit procurement and facilitation networks that enable these destabilizing activities," he said.
The officials sanctioned by both Washington and Seoul include North Korean generals leading ten thousand North Korean troops in Russia, including Kim Yong Bok, who has appeared at seven events with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year, including special forces exercises.
South Korea separately blacklisted the North's special forces unit known as the Storm Corps, also in Russia fighting against Ukraine, and its chief, Ri Pong-chun.
OIL AND GAS TO THE NORTH
The Treasury sanctions freeze the U.S. assets of the designated entities, ban their trade with Americans and block them from transactions with the U.S. financial system.
The Treasury blacklisted Russia-based foreign trade companies that it said were shipping oil and gas to North Korea. The companies include Vostok Trading, DV Ink and Novosibirskoblgaz.
North Korea has likely received more than 1 million barrels of oil from Russia over an eight-month period this year in breach of U.N. sanctions, according to an analysis of satellite imagery published in November by the British-based Open Source Centre and the BBC.
North Korean oil tankers have made more than 40 visits to Russia's Far Eastern port of Vostochny since March, the report on the research group Open Source Centre's website said.
The sanctions also targeted Sibregiongaz, AO, the Russia-based parent company and 100% owner of Novosibirskoblgaz. They also hit Okryu Trading Company, or Okryu, a North Korea-based foreign trade company that Treasury said has received thousands of tons of oil shipments from Russia.
