Seoul sanctions Russian national linked to North Korea
2024-10-30 08:27:59
Lee Jun-il, the foreign ministry's director-general for North Korean nuclear affairs, briefs reporters on South Korea's unilateral sanctions on North Korea's weapons-financing activities at the ministry in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
By Kang Seung-woo
South Korea added a Russian national of Korean descent to its unilateral sanctions list for his alleged involvement in the illegal financing of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs, an act that violates United Nations Security Council sanctions, the foreign ministry said, Wednesday.
This is the first time that the South Korean government has imposed unilateral sanctions on an individual of Korean descent, the ministry added.
The Russian national, named Choi Chon-gon, was one of two individuals as well as two organizations that are subject to the Seoul-led sanctions concerning Pyongyang's military development plan. The other three set to face sanctions are So Myong, head of the North's Foreign Trade Bank branch in Vladivostok, and two companies owned by Choi ― Hanne Ulaan LCC and Epsilon.
"Our government's unilateral sanctions on Choi and the others will help raise awareness both in the country and abroad to prevent activities that violate sanctions," said Lee Jun-il, the director-general for North Korean nuclear affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Choi, formerly a South Korean national, established Hanne Ulaan LCC, a shell company, in Mongolia to evade international sanctions while securing funding for North Korea's WMD programs.
He is also accused of founding Epsilon, a Russia-based trading company, via a joint investment with So in order to help Pyongyang obtain illegal financing.
Choi left South Korea while being investigated here for an alleged financial crime before obtaining Russian citizenship, a foreign ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The official said Choi now runs other businesses in Vladivostok and maintains close ties with the ethnic Korean community there.
Since the inauguration of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration in May 2022, Seoul has placed sanctions independently on a total of 45 individuals and 47 agencies as well as, for the first time, an individual of Korean descent.
Earlier this month, the South Korean government also imposed unilateral sanctions on a North Korean hacking group known as Kimsuky. This was done in response to Pyongyang's botched rocket launch, which was aimed at putting a military spy satellite into space and marked the world's first unilateral sanction against the North Korean hacking group.
Kimsuky, a unit within the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the North's military intelligence agency, was accused of stealing information from individuals and institutions in diplomacy, security and national defense, and delivering it to the North Korean regime.
The group is also known to have engaged in acquiring cutting-edge technologies related to weapons development, satellites and space technology worldwide, as well as having directly or indirectly contributed to North Korea's satellite development project.
On May 31, the Kim Jong-un regime attempted to launch its first spy satellite into space, but it crashed into the West Sea due to the abnormal starting of the second-stage engine.
