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Bipartisan Bill Calls for Sanctions Related to North Korean-Russian Arms Trade

The co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Korea recently introduced a bill that would expand sanctions on any parties involved in trade or financing with North Korea that could lead to arms transfers to Russia.

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Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Joe Wilson, R-S.C., acknowledged that the Treasury Department sanctioned three entities tied to a sanctions evasion network that aims to support arms deals between the two countries. Their bill would sanction any person who exports to or imports from North Korea goods or technology for weapons that could be used in Russia's war in Ukraine. It also would sanction those who provide financial services for those parties or who provide financial services related to arms sales or transfers from North Korea to Russia.

"Kim Jong Un's material support for Russia's illegal war in Ukraine will mark a dangerous partnership between two malign actors that threaten global peace,” Connolly said in a news release announcing the bill. “We cannot allow this unholy partnership to go unchecked."

“North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is a member of the alliance of tyrants working to destroy freedom and democracy around the world," Wilson said. "This bill ensures that dictator Kim can neither profit nor aid and abet war criminal [President Vladimir] Putin’s mass murder of innocent Ukrainians.”