People watch a TV news program reporting on North Korea test-firing a newly developed tactical guided weapon on April 17, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea. The US and its Asian allies flew dozens of fighter jets over waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday in a show of force as their diplomats discussed a coordinated response to a possibly imminent North Korean nuclear test.
Chung Sung-jun | Getty Images News | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The Biden administration announced Thursday that it’s sanctioning three people for his or her work in developing weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile-related programs for North Korea.
The Treasury Department designated Staff’ Party of Korea officials Jon Il Ho, Yu Jin and Kim Su Gil for his or her “major roles within the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s development of weapons of mass destruction.” Treasury added that these officials “personally attended quite a few ballistic missile launches since at the very least 2017.”
The Biden administration said that the sanctions were coordinated with South Korea and Japan. Thursday’s sanctions follow an analogous move taken by the European Union in April.
“Recent launches show the necessity for all countries to totally implement U.N. Security Council resolutions, that are intended to stop the DPRK from acquiring the technologies, materials, and revenue Pyongyang must develop its prohibited weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile capabilities,” said Brian Nelson, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a release.
The sanctions follow renewed North Korean ballistic missile tests. Up to now this 12 months, Pyongyang has launched eight intercontinental ballistic missiles and carried out 60 ballistic missile tests.
In October, North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles. Certainly one of those traveled 2,800 miles, a distance that puts the U.S. territory of Guam inside its trajectory, before splashing down into the Pacific Ocean.
The provocative Oct. 5 test prompted late-night calls from White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan to his Japanese and South Korean counterparts. President Joe Biden condemned the missile test in a phone call with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and discussed ways to “limit North Korea’s ability to support its illegal ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs,” based on a White House readout of the decision.
The test, the primary in five years to fly over Japan, was answered with a volley of U.S. and South Korean missiles. On the time, the Pentagon said that the 4 missiles were launched into the waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.
Under Kim Jong Un, the reclusive state has conducted its strongest nuclear test, launched its first-ever intercontinental ballistic missile and threatened to send missiles into the waters near Guam.
Since 2011, Kim has launched greater than 100 missiles and conducted 4 nuclear weapons tests, which is greater than what his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, launched over a period of 27 years.
