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On Wednesday, the Washington administration imposed new sanctions on 5 North Korean officials. The move came in response to Pyongyang’s latest ballistic missile test. The Treasury Department said the US is imposing penalties on the 5 North Korean officials for their roles in obtaining equipment and technology for their missile programs. Moreover, the State Department ordered sanctions against another North Korean, a Russian man, and a Russian company for their broader support of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction activities. The recent move from the US Treasury came just hours after North Korea said leader Kim Jong-Un oversaw a successful flight test of a hypersonic missile on Tuesday that he claimed would greatly increase the country’s nuclear war deterrent.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield tweeted and said that following designations by the US State Treasury are also proposing UN sanctions in response to North Korea’s 6 ballistic missile launches since September. She said each of which was in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. A US diplomat said the country is continuing to coordinate with its council partners on the proposed new sanctions. One of the 5 North Korean officials targeted by the Treasury is based in Russia, while the other 4 are based in China. All are alleged of providing money, goods, or services to North Korea’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences, which the Treasury says are deeply involved in the country’s military defense programs.

The US Treasury’s chief of terrorism and financial intelligence, Brian Nelson said, “The DPRK’s latest missile launches are further evidence that it continues to advance prohibited programs despite the international community’s calls for diplomacy and denuclearization”. The sanctions would freeze any assets that the targets have in US jurisdictions, bar Americans from doing business with them, and subject foreign companies and individuals to potential penalties for transactions with them. The state news agency of North Korea reported shortly before the sanctions imposed that the latest missile launch involved a hypersonic glide vehicle. The launch was North Korea’s 2^nd test of its purported hypersonic missile in a week, a type of weaponry it first tested in September. However, the UN Security Council initially imposed sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear test in 2006.