This undated image, captured from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, shows an update on new sanctions related to North Korea and Russia. Yonhap

The United States on Thursday announced sanctions against five entities and one individual — based in Russia and a Russian-occupied Georgian region — for their alleged involvement in illicit financial schemes between Pyongyang and Moscow.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control added them to its sanctions list, accusing them of having enabled and supported ongoing efforts to establish illicit payment mechanisms between North Korea and Russia, as Washington has been striving to disrupt any efforts to fund Pyongyang's weapons programs and support for Russia's war in Ukraine.

Those sanctioned are MRB Bank in Georgia's South Ossetia region; Russian Financial Corporation Bank; TSMRBank in Russia; Stroytreyd LLC, a Moscow-based company; Timer Bank in Russia; and a vice president of TSMRBank.

The department said that the latest sanctions measure targets illicit financial schemes orchestrated by North Korea's two state-run entities — Foreign Trade Bank (FTB) and Korea Kwangson Banking Corporation (KKBC).

In a scheme, MRB Bank acted as a cut-out for TSMRBank to establish a secret banking relationship with FTB, according to the department.

The TSMRBank vice president facilitated cash deposits from FTB through TSMRBank to MRB, it said. The bank official organized the opening of correspondent accounts for FTB and KKBC at MRB, and coordinated with North Korean representatives for the delivery of millions of dollars and rubles in banknotes to FTB and KKBC accounts at MRB.

State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller answers questions during a news briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., July 18, 2023. AP-Yonhap

"At least some of the DPRK accounts at MRB were used to pay for fuel exports from Russia to the DPRK," the department said in a press release, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The department said that the latest sanctions measure demonstrated Moscow's use of illicit financial schemes to enable Pyongyang to access the international banking system in breach of financial sanctions required under a U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolution and of a ban on correspondent relationships with North Korean banks under another resolution.

"Today's action underscores our significant concern with efforts by Russia and the DPRK to deepen financial cooperation in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions," Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith was quoted as saying in a press release.

"The United States remains strongly committed to leveraging all our available tools to disrupt this and other schemes intended to support Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and enable the DPRK's illicit access to the international financial system," the official added.

In a separate statement, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the U.S. will continue to use the tools at its disposal to disrupt Russia's support for North Korea's illicit financial networks and its war against Ukraine.

"The growing financial cooperation between Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea directly threatens international security and the global financial system," he said in a statement. "Russia has become increasingly dependent on the DPRK as it faces mounting battlefield losses and increasing international isolation." (Yonhap)