According to a list compiled by the U.S Department of State, the United States responded with sanctions on average once a month to North Korea’s missile launches and cybercrimes between January and November last year, to “deprive the DPRK of the funds to advance its destabilizing missile and weapons of mass destruction programs.” During this period, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed a total of 33 sanctions against individuals, companies, and organizations in seven countries, among them China, Russia, and the DPRK itself.
Independent sanctions against North Korea or its affiliations, which amounted to one in 2021 and nine in 2022, rose to eleven last year – the highest number of sanctions under U.S. President Joe Biden and the second-highest since 2018, when North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests had also intensified.
“The DPRK’s illicit weapons of mass destruction and missile programs threaten international security and regional stability,” said Brian E. Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, on Mar. 1, 2023. “The United States remains committed to targeting the regime’s global illicit networks that generate the revenue for these destabilizing activities.”
Sanctions were directed at both companies and organizations as well as individuals
The actions by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) were primarily directed at both companies and organizations as well as individuals that generate illicit proceeds to support the North Korean government or are suspected of trafficking weapons, munitions, and military equipment through North Korea.
In March, for example, the OFAC imposed sanctions on the Chilsong and Korea Paekho Trading Corporations, among others, “for being agencies, instrumentalities, or controlled entities of the Government of North Korea or the Workers’ Party of Korea.”
In May, the United States and the ROK took their first bilateral cybercrime action against North Korean national Shim Hyun-Seop, who is also currently wanted by the FBI for his involvement in the illicit financing of North Korea. In addition, the United States announced trilateral sanctions with South Korea and Japan in August following Pyongyang’s (failed) launch of a spy satellite. The punishments were directed against several individuals and companies that had reportedly supported North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.
In November, the US, South Korea, Japan, and Australia also jointly imposed sanctions for the first time against eight North Korean representatives abroad who, according to them, were involved in profitable activities for North Korea and had procured missile technology for the regime. The four countries thereby reacted to the launch of another reconnaissance satellite, which North Korean state media said had transmitted photos of US military facilities in Japan and Guam, as well as of the White House and the Pentagon.
Edited by Robert Lauler.
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