US sanctions facilitators of payments between Russia, N. Korea

The U.S. State and Treasury departments announced new sanctions Thursday on five groups and one person said to be involved in illicit payment mechanisms between Russia and North Korea.

In a statement issued by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the department said the action holds accountable five entities and one individual, based in Russia and in the Russia-occupied Georgian region of South Ossetia, that have assisted sanctions evasion by Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK.

“With mounting losses on the battlefield and deepening international isolation,” the statement reads, “Russia has become increasingly dependent on the DPRK for weapons procurement and economic cooperation.

“Today’s sanctions demonstrate the [Russian President Vladimir] Putin regime’s use of illicit financial schemes to enable the DPRK to access the international banking system in violation of targeted financial sanctions,” the department said.

It said it also demonstrates the department’s “commitment to exposing and disrupting networks that facilitate the funding of the DPRK’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs and support Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.”

The sanctions target and freeze the U.S.-controlled assets of five banks — one in Georgia and four in Russia — and Dmitry Yuryevich Nikulin, vice president of Russia’s TSMRBank, for establishing a secret banking relationship with North Korean financial institutions that funneled millions of dollars and rubles between them.

In a separate statement, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “The growing financial cooperation between Russia and the DPRK directly threatens international security and the global financial system.

“The United States will continue to use the tools at its disposal to disrupt both Russia’s support for the DPRK’s illicit financial networks and its war against Ukraine,” Miller said.

The sanctions come six days after Russia's Security Council chief, Sergei Shoigu, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to discuss the implementation of the mutual security agreement signed earlier this year by the two nations.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.