The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced updates to its sanctions list on Sept. 19, adding the names of five entities and one individual in violation of regulations the U.S. has placed on North Korea.
"Today's action holds accountable parties that have assisted (North Korea) and Russian sanctions evasion," said Treasury official Bradley Smith.
"The U.S. remains strongly committed to leveraging all our available tools to disrupt this and other schemes intended to support Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and enable (North Korea's) illicit access to the international financial system."
North Korea and Russia have deepened their military and political cooperation since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
"North Korea would be first, then there is no one for a long time, and then everyone else," Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine's military intelligence chief, said earlier in September, discussing countries that offer the most military support to Russia.
In January, the U.S. announced sanctions on a Russian state-owned airline involved in the transfer of North Korean ballistic missiles to Russia. South Korea has warned that North Korea may be supplying Russia with tactical guided missiles and over six million artillery shells.
MRB Bank, the "International Settlement Bank" LLC, one of the entities updated as violating sanctions on North Korea, has been providing banking services in Russian-occupied territories under the control of Russia's Central Bank since 2014.
One of the involved sanctioned North Korean entities has been designated as serving as North Korea's primary foreign currency exchange bank and "is vital to the illicit financial networks (North Korea) uses to finance its WMD and ballistic missile programs," the Treasury said.
Chris York
