Seoul also blacklists 11 people, 15 entities

WASHINGTON — The United States hit North Korea and Russia on Monday with new sanctions targeting Pyongyang’s financial and military support to Moscow as well as its ballistic missile program.

The sanctions, which list North Korean banks, generals, and other officials, as well as Russian oil shipping companies, are the latest US measure aimed at disrupting North Korea’s support to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The North Korean banks targeted include Golden Triangle Bank, one of the biggest banks in the northeastern Rason Special Economic Zone, and Pyongyang-based Korea Mandal Credit Bank, which has representatives throughout China, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

South Korea’s foreign ministry separately said on Tuesday that it has blacklisted 11 individuals and 15 entities linked to illicit military cooperation between North Korea and Russia.

The responses came as 10 countries, including the US, South Korea, Australia, Britain, France, and Japan, as well as the European Union, issued a joint statement on Tuesday condemning Pyongyang and Moscow’s military ties “in the strongest possible terms.”

The statement said North Korea’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine was a “dangerous expansion of the conflict” and a “flagrant violation” of United Nations’ (UN) sanctions. It urged the country to withdraw its troops from Russia.

Pyongyang and Moscow have ramped up diplomatic and economic ties in recent years, culminating in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea in June when the countries’ leaders agreed on a mutual defense pact.

Military cooperation between the two countries has been met with international alarm, with Washington, Kyiv, and Seoul condemning North Korea for sending military equipment and more than 10,000 troops to support Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

North Korea’s actions, including its most recent test of a long-range ballistic missile and its deepening military support to Russia, undermine the stability of the region and sustain Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine, said Bradley Smith, acting Under Secretary of the US Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“The United States remains committed to disrupting the illicit procurement and facilitation networks that enable these destabilizing activities,” he said.

The officials sanctioned by both Washington and Seoul include North Korean generals leading tens of thousands of North Korean troops in Russia, including Kim Yong Bok, who has appeared at seven events with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year, including special forces exercises.

South Korea separately blacklisted the North’s special forces unit known as the Storm Corps, also in Russia fighting against Ukraine, and its chief, Ri Pong Chun.

Ukraine said on Monday that at least 30 North Korean soldiers had been killed or injured in combat in Russia’s Kursk region over the weekend.

It said that Moscow began deploying them in the southern region in significant numbers last week to conduct assaults on Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk in August.

Kyiv estimates there are 11,000 North Koreans in total, adding to a force of tens of thousands of Russians.

Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Koreans on its side.

OIL AND GAS TO THE NORTH
The Treasury sanctions freeze the US assets of the designated entities, ban their trade with Americans, and block them from transactions with the US financial system.

The Treasury blacklisted Russia-based foreign trade companies that it said were shipping oil and gas to North Korea. The companies include Vostok Trading, DV Ink, and Novosibirskoblgaz. The Treasury said they began shipping “thousands of tons of oil and gas” to North Korea beginning in 2022 and continuing through at least April 2024.

North Korea has likely received more than 1 million barrels of oil from Russia over an eight-month period this year in breach of UN sanctions, according to an analysis of satellite imagery published in November by the British-based Open Source Centre and the BBC.

North Korean oil tankers have made more than 40 visits to Russia’s Far Eastern port of Vostochny since March, the report on the research group Open Source Centre’s website said.

The sanctions also targeted Sibregiongaz, AO, the Russia-based parent company and 100% owner of Novosibirskoblgaz. They also hit Okryu Trading Company, or Okryu, a North Korea-based foreign trade company that the Treasury said has received thousands of tons of oil shipments from Russia. — Reuters

TAIPEI — The mayor of Taiwan’s capital told visiting Chinese officials on Tuesday he hoped for peace and wanted less of the “howls of ships and aircraft” around the island, saying dialogue trumps confrontation.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, sends warplanes and warships near the island on an almost daily basis, and held a new round of mass military activities last week.

Addressing the annual Taipei Shanghai City Forum with Shanghai Vice-Mayor Hua Yuan in attendance, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an used poetic language to say he wished for peace across the Taiwan Strait.

“More dialogue and less confrontation; more olive branches of peace and less sour grapes of conflict. More lights from fishing boats to adorn the sunset; less of the howls of ships and aircraft,” Mr. Chiang said.

“I always say that the more tense and difficult the moment, the more we need to communicate,” he added.

China has continued to send warplanes and warships into the strait even with the forum taking place, with Taiwan’s defense ministry saying on Tuesday morning that in the past 24 hours it had detected 10 military aircraft and seven warships.

Mr. Chiang is from Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, which traditionally favors close ties across the Taiwan Strait although it denies being pro-Beijing. He is widely considered a future presidential contender.

The forum, first held in 2010, is one of the few high-level venues for talks between Chinese and Taiwanese officials after China cut off a regular dialogue mechanism with Taiwan’s central government in 2016 following the election of Tsai Ing-wen as president.

Ms. Tsai, and her successor Lai Ching-te, refuse to acknowledge Beijing’s position that both China and Taiwan are part of “one China.” Mr. Lai, like Ms. Tsai, says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, rejecting Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

Mr. Hua told the forum he hoped for closer practical cooperation.

“Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have always been one family. We often come and go, getting closer and closer to each other,” he said.

Shanghai tour group trips to Taiwan will restart, Mr. Hua added, offering his own olive branch given China has yet to allow a full post-pandemic resumption of tourism to the island.

Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said on Monday the government was showing goodwill by allowing the forum to take place even in the face of the “still serious situation across the Taiwan Strait.” — Reuters

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s anti-graft agency raided the headquarters (HQ) of the central bank in Jakarta on Monday in relation to a probe into alleged mishandling of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, the agency and the central bank said.

The office of central bank Governor Perry Warjiyo was among those raided, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

They declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak on the issue.

Bank Indonesia’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation that Mr. Warjiyo’s office was raided.

A spokesperson for the anti-graft body confirmed the search took place but did not provide further details.

The central bank said it respected the investigation and would cooperate with the anti-graft agency.

The agency in September had said it was investigating CSR programs run by financial regulators in 2023, including the central bank, for potential misuse of funds for personal gain, according to local media. — Reuters