US hits North Korea and Russia with new sanctions over military and oil support

The United States hit North Korea and Russia on Monday with new sanctions targeting Pyongyang’s 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 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.

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 Moscow’s military ties “in the strongest possible terms”.

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The statement said North Korea’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine was a “dangerous expansion of the conflict” and a “flagrant violation” of United Nations’ sanctions. It urged the country to withdraw its troops from 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 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.

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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 Under Secretary 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 tens of thousands of 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.

Ukraine said on Monday that at least 30 North Korean soldiers had been killed or injured in combat in Russia’s 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 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. Treasury said they began shipping “thousands of tons of oil and gas” 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 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.