Sept. 25 (UPI) — The United States on Thursday sanctioned one person and five entities for their role in generating money for North Korea and its weapons programs.
“This action aims to disrupt illicit networks that facilitate these attacks and simultaneously cutting off funding for the DPRK unlawful weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs,” the State Department said in a statement.
DPRK are the initials of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The department accused those blacklisted Thursday of generating revenue for Pyongyang by conducting arms deals with Myanmar’s military regime, which has been fighting a brutal civil war — resulting in civilian deaths and the destruction of civilian infrastructure — since its coup of February 2021.
Myanmar-based Royal Shune Lei Co. Limited and key personnel, including Kyaw Thu Myo Myint and Tin Myo Aung, who assisted in arms deals for the Myanmar Air Force with Kim Jong Ju, a Beijing-based deputy representative of the Korean Mining Development Trading Co., were sanctioned Thursday.
“Also known as the 221 General Bureau, KOMID serves as the DPRK’s primary arms dealer and exporter of ballistic missile-related equipment,” the State Department said.
The designations also sanction Aung Ko Ko Oo, director of Royal Shune Lei. The State Department also named Nam Chol Ung, a North Korean national who laundered foreign earnings through a network of businesses in Southeast Asia. Nam is a representative of the Pyongyang’s Reconnaissance General Bureau.
“These actions underscore the United States’ commitment to disrupting the networks that support DPRK’s destabilizing activities and to promoting accountability for those who enable Burma’s military regime,” the State Department release said.