This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
The United States on Monday announced new sanctions tied to both North Korea’s missile-building program and its deployment of troops to Ukraine, coming amid reports of casualties of North Korean troops along Russia’s border with Ukraine.
The targeted entities include the Golden Triangle Bank, which allows people visiting North Korea to convert their foreign money into the local currency for use while in the country, as well as the Korea Mandal Credit Bank, which operates banks across neighboring China.
Both institutions were helping to finance Pyongyang’s intercontinental missile building program, according to a statement released by the U.S. Treasury, which described the efforts as “destabilizing.”
North Korea has for years aimed to build missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons to the continental United States, and regularly tests shorter-range missiles in waters around Japan and South Korea.
Also sanctioned on Monday were Ri Chang Ho, who is the director of North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, and Kim Yong Bok, a senior military general. Both are “known” to be involved in Pyongyang’s deployment of troops to Russia, the U.S. Treasury statement said.
North Korean Defense Minister Ro Kwang Chol and Kim Geum Cheol, the president of the locally prestigious Kim Il Sung Military University, were also sanctioned –- as were Ju Chang Il, the head of North Korea’s Propaganda and Agitation Department, and Pak Jong Chon, a senior official who often appears at events involving ballistic missiles.
“The Kim regime’s continued provocative actions — including its most recent ICBM test and its deepening military support to Russia — undermine the stability of the region and sustain Putin’s continued aggression in Ukraine,” said Bradley Smith, the acting under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Casualties emerge
The sanctions came amid reports of the first casualties of North Korean troops sent by Pyongyang to help Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that Russian forces had for the first time used North Korean troops in significant numbers to attack Ukrainian positions. Ukraine’s military later released drone images of what it said were dead North Koreans.
Ukraine’s military also said that the “language barrier” had led some North Korean troops to attack Chechen troops working with Russia.
Separately Monday, the foreign ministers of ten countries and the European Union released a joint statement denouncing North Korea’s deployment of troops “as a dangerous expansion of the conflict, with serious consequences for European and Indo-Pacific security.”
Signed by the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States, the statement condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the growing cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
“We are deeply concerned about any political, military, or economic support that Russia may be providing to the DPRK’s illegal weapons programs, including weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery,” the statement said, using an acronym for North Korea.
The statement also called for North Korea to “cease immediately all assistance for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, including by withdrawing its troops” and for Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine.
