This ban on South Koreans doing business with the U.S. was symbolic, as there is very little between the two Koreas. However, North Korea may react angrily to the steps. The North Korean government last month called Yoon Suk Yeol and the South Korean president “idiots” while calling Yoon Suk Yeol “wild dogs” after Seoul announced it is considering adding unilateral sanctions to Pyongyang.
Soon after the U.S. Treasury Department had announced it sanctioned three members North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party for providing support to the country’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, the South Korean sanctions were made public.
According to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, Seoul’s Sanctions were imposed in response to North Korea’s growing weapons threat. This was highlighted last month by testing an intercontinental ballistic Missile that had the potential to reach the U.S. mainland.
Washington had sanctioned the seven individuals and companies targeted by Seoul and they were involved in numerous North Korean efforts to evade sanctions by the United Nations Security Council to finance its weapons program. These included ship-to–ship fuel transfers and illicit labor exports, according to the ministry.
The sanctions listed six officials from four North Korean banks, one Taiwanese national, Chen Shih Huan, and Kwek Kee Sung as the sanctioned persons. Four companies were North Korean trading and shipping firms while three others were Singapore-based shippers.
Ministry said that it had been in close coordination with Japan’s government to ensure that similar individuals and groups were placed together under the unilateral Sanctions of Related Nations to increase awareness and strengthen the effectiveness and effectiveness of sanctions.
South Korea imposed sanctions on 15 individuals, 16 organizations and 16 entities accused of supporting North Korea’s weapons development in October. This was Seoul’s first unilateral sanction against Pyongyang in five year.
North Korea increased its weapons demonstrations at a record rate this year. The country used the distraction caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in order to develop its weapons program and put pressure on Washington and Seoul.
South Korean and U.S. officials also claimed that signs indicate that North Korea may be preparing for its first nuclear attack since September 2017. This would intensify a brinkmanship that experts believe is designed to make the United States accept North Korea’s idea of it as a nuclear-power and allow them to negotiate concessions from their position of strength.
Russia opposed a U.S.-led May attempt to tighten Security Council sanctions against North Korea over its earlier missile tests. This was in response to a growing division among the council’s permanent members, which has been heightened by Russia’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine. Experts predict that North Korea’s next nuclear attack, which would mark its seventh in total, will likely lead to the Security Council failing to take new punitive steps