The US recently put bans on Russian businesses after seeing those businesses trade illegal weapons with North Korea.
The US says that on December 30 and January 2, Russia attacked Ukraine with a rocket from North Korea. It was recently reported that North Korea had let Russian tourists in and that Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin had met there.
The United States criticized the trade between the two countries last week and said that the rocket didn’t come from Russia but from North Korea. The US has now kept up the fight by putting in place penalties.
U.S. Attorney General Antony Blinken said, “The DPRK’s transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia supports Russia’s war of aggression, makes things worse for the people of Ukraine, and weakens the global nonproliferation regime.”
To attack Ukraine, the White House said that Russia had used short-range ballistic missiles that North Korea had given them. It was also said that “newly classified intelligence was corroborated by a senior Ukrainian official.” This means that proof was found that let the US know that weapons were coming from North Korea or being made by the North Korean military. As a result, North Korea was breaking the law by trading arms with other countries.
Since 2006, the UN has not let North Korea have any weapons because it tested a nuclear bomb. Resolutions from the UN Security Council say that countries can’t trade military weapons or other tools with North Korea. Russia’s trade would be against these rules.
Even though it’s clear that Russia and North Korea have grown closer, both deny that they have made any arms deals. The US, on the other hand, and U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken said they would “not hesitate to take further actions.”
