The US hit North Korea and Russia on Monday with new sanctions targeting Pyongyangโs financial and military support to Moscow as well as its ballistic missile program.
The sanctions, which list North Korean banks, generals and other officials, as well as Russian oil shipping companies, are the latest US measure aimed at disrupting support of North Korea to Russia in its war with 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.
Joint Statement
South Koreaโs 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.
The responses came as 10 countries, including the U.S., South Korea, Australia, Britain, France and Japan, as well as the European Union, issued a joint statement on Tuesday condemning Pyongyang and Moscowโs military ties โin the strongest possible termsโ.
The statement said North Koreaโs support for Russiaโs war against Ukraine was a โdangerous expansion of the conflictโ and a โflagrant violationโ of United Nationsโ sanctions. It urged the country to withdraw its troops from Russia.
Russia-North Korea Ties
Pyongyang and Moscow have ramped up diplomatic and economic ties in recent years, culminating in Russian President Vladimir Putinโs visit to North Korea in June when the countriesโ leaders agreed 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 Russiaโs full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
North Koreaโs 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 Putinโs war in Ukraine, said Bradley Smith, acting Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
โThe United States remains committed to disrupting the illicit procurement and facilitation networks that enable these destabilizing activities,โ he said.
North Koreans In Russia-Ukraine War
The officials sanctioned by both Washington and Seoul include North Korean generals leading tens of thousands of North Korean troops in Russia, including Kim Yong Bok. Bok has appeared at seven events with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year, including special forces exercises.
South Korea separately blacklisted the Northโs special forces unit known as the Storm Corps, also in Russia fighting against Ukraine, and its chief, Ri Pong Chun.
Ukraine said on Monday that at least 30 North Korean soldiers had been killed or injured in combat in Russiaโs Kursk region over the weekend.
It said that Moscow began deploying them in the southern region in significant numbers last week to conduct assaults on Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk in August.
Kyiv estimates there are 11,000 North Koreans in total, adding to a force of tens of thousands of Russians.
Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Koreans on its side.
Oil And Gas Sanctions
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. The Treasury said they began shipping โthousands of tons of oil and gasโ to North Korea beginning in 2022 and continuing through at least April 2024.
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 Russiaโs Far Eastern port of Vostochny since March, the report on the research group Open Source Centreโs 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 the Treasury said has received thousands of tons of oil shipments from Russia.
(with inputs from Reuters)