The EU has added three people and four organisations to its sanctions lists over support for North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and alleged violations of UN restrictions linked to Russia — North Korea cooperation.
The measures target activity the Council linked to “growing military and economic cooperation” between Pyongyang and Moscow, including the deployment of North Korean workers in Russia, commercial projects and an “arms-for-oil” trade, which breach UN Security Council prohibitions approved by Russia as a permanent member, the Council of the EU said in a statement on Monday.
Those added to the list include Ri Song Jin, described as a researcher at North Korea’s National Aerospace Technology Administration and an official at its Missile General Bureau, who the Council said was deployed to Russia as a technician supporting Russia’s use of North Korean missiles.
The Council also listed Russian real estate developer Samolet Group and its chief executive, Anna Nikolaevna Akinshina, saying the company employed North Korean workers on construction projects in Vladivostok in violation of UN sanctions.
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sokolov, founder and president of Russian holding company Black Horse, was also sanctioned for promoting and facilitating commercial and industrial cooperation projects involving North Korea, including a Russia — North Korea industrial investment project in Russia’s Primorsky Krai.
Asset freeze and travel ban
Two further entities were added: Paekyangsan Shipping Co Ltd, which the Council said operates a North Korea-flagged vessel involved in shipments of refined petroleum products from Russia to North Korea in breach of UN Security Council Resolution 2397, and Golden Autumn Agroholding, a subsidiary of Black Horse.
The listings mean those targeted face an asset freeze, and it is prohibited to provide them with funds or economic resources, directly or indirectly. The sanctioned individuals are also subject to a travel ban to the EU, it added.
The decision brings the total number of people listed autonomously by the EU to 80 individuals and 25 entities, alongside UN sanctions that the bloc has transposed into EU law.
The legal acts have been published in the Official Journal of the EU.
