South Korea sanctions Russian national over financing North's weapons programs

ANKARA

South Korea on Wednesday imposed sanctions on four more individuals and organizations including a Russian citizen over their alleged involvement in financing of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction programs, according to local media.

South Korea for the first time added any foreign national of Korean descent to the blacklist, Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported.

The blacklisted individuals and organizations included Choi Chon Gon, So Myong, Hanne Ulaan, 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," the agency quoted Lee Jun-il, the director-general for North Korean nuclear affairs at Seoul's Foreign Ministry, as saying.

Seoul accused Choi, a Russian citizen of Korean descent, of founding a North Korea front company named Hanne Ulaan LCC in Mongolia for the purpose of evading international sanctions while securing funding for Pyongyang's weapons programs, according to the report.

He is also accused of supporting Pyongyang's financing by establishing Epsilon, a Russia-based trading firm, along with So, head of the North's Foreign Trade Bank branch in the Russian city of Vladivostok.

Over the past year, South Korea sanctioned 45 individuals and 47 agencies for involvement in the regime's secretive nuclear and missile development programs.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid