The United States has announced new sanctions targeting high-ranking North Korean military officials and entities linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine and North Korea’s ballistic missile development program.
On December 16, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on nine individuals and seven organizations accused of providing financial and military support to North Korea. The State Department also added three more entities to its list of sanctioned targets for their involvement in North Korea’s ballistic missile program.
Among those sanctioned are Kim Young-bok, Deputy Chief of Staff of the General Staff Department of the Korean People’s Army, and Ri Chang-ho, the head of North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau.
According to the Treasury Department, these officials are senior North Korean military figures who traveled to Russia alongside thousands of North Korean soldiers to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Other notable figures sanctioned include Park Jong-chon, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea, along with Ro Kwang-chol, former Minister of Defense, and Kim Geum-chol, President of Kim Il-sung Military University. Im Song-jin, a physics professor at Kim Il-sung University, was also listed.
Park Jong-chon is a known close aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, frequently accompanying him on military site inspections and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test launches. He was also present at the expanded summit between Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang in June this year.
Additionally, the sanctions target the Korea Mandal Credit Bank (KMCB), which the Treasury Department claims facilitates material procurement for North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) development programs.
Two key financial operatives based in China were also blacklisted. Choe Chol-ryong, a representative of the Korea Kwangson Banking Corporation in Dandong, China, was sanctioned for his role in smuggling cash between North Korea and China. Kim Myong-jin, head of the Beijing branch of Korea Daesong Bank, was designated for his involvement in illicit financial activities on behalf of the North Korean regime.
Other sanctioned entities include Golden Triangle Bank, which manages foreign currency transactions, and North Korea’s Okryu Trading Company. A Russian-based trading firm accused of transporting crude oil and gas to North Korea was also listed as a sanctioned entity.
Under U.S. sanctions, all assets of the designated individuals and entities within the United States are frozen, and they are barred from traveling to the U.S. or engaging in any transactions with U.S. persons or entities.
BY YOUNGNAM KIM [kim.youngnam@koreadaily.com]
