(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on two Russian
banks, a North Korean company and a person it accused of supporting
North Korea's weapons of mass destruction program, increasing
pressure on Pyongyang over its renewed ballistic missile launches,
Trend reports
citing Reuters.
The latest American move came a day after China and Russia
vetoed a U.S.-led push to impose more United Nations sanctions on
North Korea over its ballistic missile launches, publicly splitting
the U.N. Security Council for the first time since it started
punishing Pyongyang in 2006.
The vetoes came despite what the United States says was a sixth
test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by North Korea
this year and signs that Pyongyang is preparing to conduct its
first nuclear test since 2017.
The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it targeted Air
Koryo Trading Corp as well as Russian financial institutions the
Far Eastern Bank and Bank Sputnik for contributing to procurement
and revenue generation for North Korean organizations.
Washington also designated Jong Yong Nam, a Belarus-based
representative of an organization subordinate to the North Korea
Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS), who Washington said has
supported North Korean organizations linked to the development of
ballistic missiles.
North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
'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, said in the
statement.
China has been urging the United States to take action -
including lifting some unilateral sanctions - to entice Pyongyang
to resume talks stalled since 2019, after three failed summits
between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-U.S. President
Donald Trump. The United States has said Pyongyang should not be
rewarded.
Late on Friday, the top diplomats of South Korea, Japan and the
United States issued a joint statement saying North Korea had
'significantly increased the pace and scale of its ballistic
missile launches since September 2021'.
In the statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, South
Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and Japanese Foreign Minister
Yoshimasa Hayashi urged Pyongyang to 'return to negotiations.'
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