Seoul, Washington, Tokyo impose sanctions on Pyongyang for weapons programs

North Korea test fires a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile at Pyongyang International Airport on Nov. 18, Pyongyang’s state media reported on Nov. 19. [YONHAP]

Seoul, Washington and Tokyo imposed back-to-back sanctions on Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile weapons programs.

South Korea levied unilateral sanctions on individuals and organizations linked with the North's weapons programs, Seoul's Foreign Ministry announced Friday.

"The Korean government decided to additionally designate eight persons and seven institutions as subjects of independent sanctions," said the Foreign Ministry in a statement. "This is a measure to respond strongly to North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and missile programs that pose serious threats to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and the international community."

The individuals included Kwek Kee-seng and Chen Shih-huan, and the companies New Eastern Shipping, Anfasar Trading and Swanseas Port Services.

They were involved in either financial transactions to fund North Korea's weapons programs or in illegal transport of sanctioned products such as fuel to and from the North.

The eight individuals, including a Singaporean and a Taiwanese person, and seven companies were also sanctioned by the United States between January 2018 and October 2022.

"The South Korean government expects that the independent sanctions will effectively block financial transactions of relevant North Korean institutions and individuals and alert the domestic and international community of the risks of transactions with these entities," said the Foreign Ministry.

This was the seventh time the South Korean government imposed independent sanctions on North Korea, and the second time this year.

As of Friday, 132 individuals and 112 organizations and companies had been sanctioned, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Seoul's latest sanctions followed Washington's unilateral sanctions on North Korean officials linked with its weapons programs.

The U.S. Treasury Department added three North Korean individuals — Jon Il-ho, Kim Su-gil and Yu Jin — to their blacklist Thursday.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said that Jon, vice director of North Korea's Munitions Industry Department, and Yu, its director, played major roles in the development of its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program. They are said to have personally attended numerous ballistic missile launches since at least 2017.

Kim served as director of the North Korean People's Army General Political Bureau from 2018 to 2021 and oversaw the implementation of Pyongyang's decisions related to its WMD program.

The sanctions freeze the assets of the individuals in the United States and bar any transactions with them.

Tokyo also designated three entities and an individual for new sanctions, Japan's Foreign Ministry said Friday. This includes the Lazarus Group, a North Korean-sponsored hacking group that was sanctioned by the United States since 2019.

North Korea launched 63 ballistic missiles this year, including an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Nov. 18, its largest ICBM test so far.

Referring to the latest sanctions on the North, White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Friday that the United States and its allies will work to advance the "shared objective of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

"This synchronized action demonstrates the increased strength of the trilateral relationship between the United States, Japan and the ROK," Watson said in a statement, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.

She said the latest sanctions follow U.S. President Joe Biden's trilateral summit in Cambodia last month with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, where the leaders "condemned" the North's unprecedented number of ballistic missile launches and "resolved to strengthen deterrence and to forge closer trilateral ties."

BY ESTHER CHUNG, SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]