The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on two Russian banks, a North Korean firm and an individual it accused of supporting North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction program, growing strain on Pyongyang over its renewed ballistic missile launches.
The newest American transfer got here a day after China and Russia vetoed a US-led push to impose extra United Nations sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launches, publicly splitting the UN Security Council for the primary time because it began punishing Pyongyang in 2006.
The vetoes got here regardless of what the United States says was a sixth check of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by North Korea this yr and indicators that Pyongyang is making ready to conduct its first nuclear check since 2017.
The US Treasury Department in a press release mentioned it focused Air Koryo Trading Corp in addition to Russian monetary establishments the Far Eastern Bank and Bank Sputnik for contributing to procurement and income technology for North Korean organisations.
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Washington additionally designated Jong Yong Nam, a Belarus-based consultant of an organisation subordinate to the North Korea Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS), who Washington mentioned has supported North Korean organisations linked to the event of ballistic missiles.
The #USAmbassador To The UN known as #NorthKorea‘s intercontinental ballistic missile launches a dangerous, disappointing, & likely to fuel Pyongyang’s program to develop nuclear-capable missile programs. #SEAToday #SEATodayNews #Jakarta #Indonesia #UN #ZhangJun #missile pic.twitter.com/XJWmdtNkGJ
— SEA Today News (@seatodaynews) May 28, 2022
North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
“The United States will continue to implement and enforce existing sanctions while urging the DPRK (North Korea) to return to a diplomatic path and abandon its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles,” the Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, mentioned within the assertion.
China has been urging the United States to take motion — together with lifting some unilateral sanctions — to entice Pyongyang to renew talks stalled since 2019, after three failed summits between North Korean chief Kim Jong Un and then-US President Donald Trump. The United States has mentioned Pyongyang shouldn’t be rewarded.
Late on Friday, the highest diplomats of South Korea, Japan and the United States issued a joint assertion saying North Korea had “significantly increased the pace and scale of its ballistic missile launches since September 2021”.
In the assertion, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi urged Pyongyang to “return to negotiations.”
