South Korea has announced new sanctions on two individuals and two entities over their alleged involvement in North Korea's weapons programmes, Seoul's foreign ministry said.
The sanctions target Choi Chon Gon, a former South Korean national who acquired Russian citizenship, two companies Choi owns and a North Korean who supported Choi, the ministry said.
Choi is accused of helping North Korea's illegal financial activities in violation of United Nations Security Council sanctions after acquiring Russian citizenship.
"It marks the first time our government has imposed unilateral sanctions on an individual of Korean descent," the ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, Choi allegedly founded a North Korean front company in Mongolia to assist Pyongyang in evading sanctions to secure financing for its banned weapons programmes.
Seoul authorities also believe that he is running a separate, Russia-based trading company through a joint investment partnership with the chief of Pyongyang's state-run Foreign Trade Bank branch in Vladivostok.
Seoul has also sanctioned the North Korean chief of the bank's Vladivostok branch, as well as the two companies Choi has founded, the ministry said.
North Korea has doubled down on military development since diplomatic efforts collapsed in 2019, conducting a string of banned weapons tests, including test-firing multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Kim declared his country last year an "irreversible" nuclear power and called for an "exponential" increase in weapons production, including tactical nuclear weapons.
According to Seoul, Tokyo and Washington, Pyongyang stole as much as $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency last year alone and supported its weapons programmes in part by gathering information through "malicious cyber activities".
Reuters was unable to immediately reach Choi for comment.
Nuclear-armed North Korea has been testing various weapons including its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile, ramping up tension with Seoul and the South's main ally, the United States.
