US announces new sanctions after North Korea ICBM test

This picture taken on March 24, 2022 and released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 25, 2022 shows the test launch of a new type inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasongpho-17 of North Korea’s strategic forces in an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)

WASHINGTON –  The United States announced new sanctions Thursday on entities and people in Russia and North Korea after Pyongyang’s new ICBM missile test.

The targeted persons and organizations are accused of “transferring sensitive items to North Korea’s missile program,” the State Department said in a statement.

“These measures are part of our ongoing efforts to impede the DPRK’s ability to advance its missile program and they highlight the negative role Russia plays on the world stage as a proliferator to programs of concern,” the statement said, using the official acronym for North Korea.

Thursday’s launch was the first time Pyongyang has fired the country’s most powerful missiles at full range since 2017, and it appears to have travelled higher and further than any previous intercontinental ballistic missile tested by the nuclear-armed nation.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the test-firing of the country’s “new type” of ICBM to boost its nuclear deterrent against the US “imperialists,” state media reported early Friday.

The State Department said Washington in response has sanctioned the Russian entities called Ardis Group, PFK Profpodshipnik, and a Russian man named Igor Aleksandrovich Michurin.

It also sanctioned North Korean citizen Ri Sung Chol and a North Korean entity called Second Academy of Natural Science Foreign Affairs Bureau.

The statement did not give details of the specific allegations against these people and entities.

Last week the US Treasury announced sanctions against two Russian individuals and three entities over their support for North Korea’s weapons program.

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