The United States declared new UN penalties will target several North Koreans after Pyongyang launched a hypersonic missile. The announcement was made by the United States ambassador to the United Nations.
On Wednesday, the Treasury and State Departments of the United States imposed penalties on five North Koreans who were tied to the nation’s nuclear and missile programs.
The United States is pushing the United Nations Security Council to impose more sanctions on North Korea following a series of North Korean missile launches, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said on Wednesday. https://t.co/eyoeVu5WKa
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) January 13, 2022
Reasons for the Sanctions
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, remarked the US is proposing UN sanctions.
This comes in response to North Korea’s six high-velocity missile launches, as of September 2021. It’s also in addition to these activities being an infringement of Security Council agreements.
As I said Monday, alongside our @UN partners, the U.S. condemns North Korea's continued ballistic missile launches. We call on North Korea to refrain from further destabilizing actions, abandon its prohibited WMD and ballistic missile programs, and engage in meaningful dialogue. pic.twitter.com/3AxmAdaekH
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) January 13, 2022
Her remark, which she shared on Twitter, did not indicate what kind of sanctions she was referring to.
The United States, per a US diplomatic insider, would recommend the Treasury and State Department nominees be added to the UN’s official list of prohibited North Korean persons and businesses.
The initiative has to go through the formal process of the United Nations Security Council’s panel on North Korean restrictions; this is composed of the Security Council’s 15 members and their judgments must be unanimous.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Treasury Department stated the five North Koreans blacklisted were in charge of acquiring supplies for the DPRK’s chemical and biological weapons, along with ballistic missile programs and other things.
As previously stated, one of the North Koreans targeted by the Treasury was located in Russia. They expressed support for the North Korean Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS), which was already subject to penalties at the sanctions announcement.
According to the Treasury Department, four North Korean officials from SANS-subordinate groups who were stationed in China were also targeted. This includes Sim Kwang Sok, Kang Chol Hak, Kim Song Hun, and Pyon Kwang Chol.
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Per the Treasury Department officials, O Yong Ho, a Russian national, Roman Anatolyevich Alar, and Russian corporation Parsek LLC were identified by the Department of State.
This was done in a related action for materially contributing to the spread of weapons of mass destruction or their delivery systems by North Korea.
In a statement released earlier this week, North Korea said its ruler, Kim Jong-un, personally supervised a successful trial of a hypersonic missile the day before.
This was the nation’s second effective missile test in less than a week, which officials have described as a provocation.
The last time the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously was in 2017.
This is when former President Trump pressed through three rounds of economic penalties against North Korea, in response to the country’s nuclear and missile testing.
The sanctions, which are still in force, restrict Pyongyang’s ability to acquire oil while also prohibiting the North Korean regime from shipping coal, iron, seafood, textiles, and other goods.
