US imposes new sanctions related to Russia, North Korea, says Treasury

By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on a network of five groups and one person for enabling payments between Russia and North Korea to support Moscow's war in Ukraine and Pyongyang's weapons programs, the Treasury Department said.

"Today's action holds accountable parties that have assisted the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of North Korea) and Russian sanctions evasion," Treasury said in a statement.

The measures also show U.S. commitment to disrupting networks "that facilitate the funding of the DPRK’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs and support Russia's illegal war against Ukraine," it said.

"The growing financial cooperation between Russia and (North Korea) directly threatens international security and the global financial system," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

"Russia has become increasingly dependent on the DPRK as it faces mounting battlefield losses and increasing international isolation."

The new sanctions expose how Russian President Vladimir Putin's government uses illegal financial schemes to help North Korea access the international banking system, in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions, Treasury said.

The U.S. action comes days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu and discussed deepening strategic dialogue between the two countries, according to a state media KCNA report on Saturday.

The United States and Ukraine, as well as independent analysts, say Kim is helping Russia by supplying rockets and missiles in return for economic and other military assistance from Moscow.

The sanctions target financial schemes by the North Korean state-run Foreign Trade Bank (FTB) and Korea Kwangson Banking Corporation, both of which had previously been sanctioned by the U.S.

One scheme orchestrated by the Central Bank of Russia had MRB Bank, based in Georgia's South Ossetia region, act for a designated Russian bank to establish a secret banking relationship with North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank, it said.

A separate scheme involved the Russian Financial Corporation Bank JSC, also already under U.S. sanctions, working with the FTB to establish a Moscow-based company to receive frozen North Korea funds held in defunct Russian banks, Treasury said.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by David Ljunggrem)