World News | New U.S. Sanctions Target North Korea Missile Program

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (AP) — The Biden administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on three members of the Central Committee of North Korea’s ruling party for their involvement in the country’s ballistic missile program.

The Ministry of Finance announced that it aimed to freeze the assets of the Workers’ Party of Korea Chairman Jeon Il-ho and Vice-Chairman Yu Jin, respectively, and Kim Soo-gil, another member of the Central Committee, and to ban Americans from any type of activity. do business with them.

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The sanctions come as North Korea has ramped up the pace of its ballistic missile tests to a record this year, firing more than 60 times, ramping up pressure on Washington and Seoul.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that the three officials “played a significant role” in North Korea’s development of weapons in violation of United Nations resolutions and had “personally participated in multiple ballistic missile launches since at least 2017.”

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The three were punished by the European Union in April, after existing U.S. sanctions on North Korea’s ruling party were included.

Dozens of tests included multiple launches of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the continental United States and an intermediate-range missile over Japan.

North Korea also carried out a series of short-range launches, what it said were mock nuclear attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets, as it reacted angrily to the expansion of joint military exercises by the allies, which it insists are rehearsals for a potential invasion.

North Korea has periodically conducted nuclear tests with the threat of nuclear conflict with Washington and Seoul, conveying an escalating nuclear doctrine.

North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament passed a law in September authorizing pre-emptive nuclear strikes in a wide range of circumstances, including in non-war situations where the country might consider its leadership threatened. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)