After several unlawful weapons tests and in close coordination with the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan, the United States and its ally countries applied sanctions to three individuals from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPPK).
DPPK has been credited with eight intercontinental ballistic missiles and more than 60 additional ballistic missile launches thus far in 2022, according to a Treasury Department news release issued Dec. 1. The latest ICBM launch was Nov. 18.
“In close coordination with the ROK and Japan, the United States is designating three DPRK officials in response to the regime's continued unlawful testing of ballistic missiles,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Dec. 1 post on Twitter. “This action also further aligns the United States with our E.U. partners.”
As a result, sanctions have now been imposed by the U.S. and ally countries as part of an ongoing effort to restrict the DPRK weapons programs, the Treasury Department release reported.
With the European Union sanctioning all three targets April 21, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control followed suit and sanctioned the three individuals for being officials of the Workers' Party of Korea, a State Department news release reported. All are officials of the WPK.
The sanctioned individuals are Jon Il Ho, chair of the Worker's Party of Korea, Committee of the Academy for Defense Research and a member of the WPK Central Committee; Yu Jin, a member of the WPK Central Committee; and Kim Su Gil, chief secretary of the Kangwo'n WPK Provincial Committee and a member of the WPK Central Committee, the State Department reported.
“These steps also underscore our sustained resolve to promote accountability in response to Pyongyang's pace, scale, and scope of ballistic missile launches,” Blinken said, according to the State Department release.
