The US announced new sanctions against Kim Jong-un's regime after the last ballistic missile test

The United States announced new sanctions on entities and individuals in Russia and North Korea on Thursday following the testing of a new Pyongyang intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in Japan's exclusive maritime economic zone.

The individuals and organizations identified are accused of “transferring sensitive items to North Korea's missile program,” the State Department said in a statement.

“These measures are part of our ongoing efforts to impede the DPRK's ability to advance its missile program and highlight the negative role that Russia plays on the world stage as a proliferator of worrying programs,” the statement said, using the official acronym for North Korea.

The Russian Ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, downplayed these measures and declared that “serial sanctions will not achieve their objectives.”

Thursday's launch marked the first time Pyongyang has fired the country's most powerful missiles at full range since 2017, and it seems to have traveled higher and farther than any intercontinental ballistic missile previously tested by the nation with nuclear weapons.

Washington has sanctioned Russian entities Ardis Group, PFK Profpodshipnik and a Russian citizen named Igor Aleksandrovich Michurin.

It also sanctioned North Korean citizen Ri Sung Chol and the North Korean entity Second Academy of Natural Sciences Bureau of Foreign Affairs.

The statement did not give details of the specific allegations against these individuals and entities.

On March 11, Washington had announced economic sanctions against two people and three Russian entities, accused of supporting the North Korean missile development program.

North Korea launched an “unidentified projectile” into the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea in both Koreas) on Thursday, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The JCS brief statement sent to journalists merely explains that “North Korea has fired an unidentified projectile into the East Sea”, while the Japanese government reported that the shell “appears to be a ballistic missile”.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense has explained that the launch took place around 14.20 local time (5.20 GMT) and that the shell would have already fallen into the water, outside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

With this test, there are already 12, a record number, the tests of this type carried out so far this year by Pyongyang, which, according to Washington and Seoul, is testing in its latest tests technology of a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) called Hwasong-17, which potentially enjoys greater range and destructive power.

This new release comes just three days after the regime tested a multiple rocket launcher system, launching several shells into the Yellow Sea (called the West Sea in both Koreas), and a week after a failed launch apparently linked to the Hwasong-17 tests.

(With information from AFP)

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