The European Union has added three people and four entities to its autonomous North Korea sanctions list, extending its response to Pyongyang’s weapons programmes into commercial and military cooperation with Russia.
The measures cover support for nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and other weapons of mass destruction, as well as conduct said to evade United Nations restrictions. They impose asset freezes and prohibit EU persons from making funds or economic resources available to those listed. The three individuals are also barred from entering or transiting through the bloc.
One listing concerns Ri Song Jin, a researcher at North Korea’s aerospace administration and an official at its Missile General Bureau. The Council said he had been deployed to Russia as a technician supporting the use of North Korean missiles.
The package also names Russian property developer Samolet Group and its chief executive, Anna Akinshina, over the employment of North Korean workers on construction projects in Vladivostok. Vladimir Sokolov, founder of the Black Horse holding company, was listed over industrial cooperation projects involving North Korea. Black Horse subsidiary Golden Autumn Agroholding was added as well.
Paekyangsan Shipping was designated over a North Korean-flagged vessel said to have carried refined petroleum from Russia in breach of the caps created by UN Security Council Resolution 2397. The Council described the wider relationship as including labour deployments, joint industrial projects and an “arms-for-oil” trade.
The decision brings the EU’s autonomous North Korea list to 80 individuals and 25 entities, separate from UN listings already incorporated into EU law. The legal acts are effective restrictive measures, not findings of criminal guilt.
Council decision and legal acts
