The United States will propose UN sanctions on multiple North Koreans, a day after Pyongyang carried out what it said was the launch of a hypersonic missile, the US United Nations ambassador announced Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the US Treasury and State Departments imposed sanctions on five North Koreans linked to the country’s ballistic missile program.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Wednesday evening that on top of these actions, “the US is proposing UN sanctions following North Korea’s six ballistic missile launches since September 2021, each of which were in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.”
Her statement, posted on Twitter, did not specify the type of sanctions.
But according to an American diplomatic source, the United States will propose adding the Treasury and State Department designees to the UN’s own list of sanctioned North Korean individuals and entities.
The proposal must formally go through the UN Security Council’s committee on North Korean sanctions, which is comprised of the 15 members of the Security Council and whose decisions must be made unanimously.
The Treasury Department said the five North Koreans sanctioned Wednesday were “responsible for procuring goods for the DPRK’s (North Korea’s) weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile-related programs.”
The Treasury said that one of the North Koreans being sanctioned, Choe Myong Hyon, was based in Russia and had provided support to North Korea’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS), which is already subject to sanctions.
Also targeted were four China-based North Korean representatives of SANS-subordinate organizations, the Treasury Department said: Sim Kwang Sok, Kim Song Hun, Kang Chol Hak and Pyon Kwang Chol.
In a related action, Treasury said the Department of State had designated another North Korean, O Yong Ho, a Russian national, Roman Anatolyevich Alar, and a Russian company, Parsek LLC, for having “materially contributed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery by (North Korea).”
North Korean state media reported on Wednesday that the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, personally oversaw its successful test of a hypersonic missile the day before, the second such launch by the nuclear-armed nation in less than a week, which diplomats have called a provocation.
The last time the UN Security Council showed unanimity was in 2017, when the United States, under former president Donald Trump, pushed through three series of economic sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests.
The measures, which are still in effect, limit Pyongyang’s ability to import oil, as well as banning it from exporting coal, iron, seafood and textiles.