The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on a Russian bank it said had facilitated a transaction with a person blacklisted by Washington for involvement with North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.

The move comes as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presses Southeast Asian countries during meetings in Singapore to maintain sanctions to pressure Pyongyang, which is in talks with the United States about dismantling its nuclear programme.

Sanctions by the United States and the United Nations Security Council, which include a ban on exports of coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood from North Korea, and caps on imports of oil and refined petroleum products, are aimed at choking off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank had conducted “a significant transaction” for Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based chief representative of Foreign Trade Bank (FTB), North Korea’s primary foreign exchange bank.

“The United States will continue to enforce UN and U.S. sanctions and shut down illicit revenue streams to North Korea,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

The Treasury also added Ri Jong Won, the Moscow-based deputy representative of FTB, and said both Ri and Han should be expelled from Russia under U.N. resolutions meant to pressure Pyongyang over its nuclear programem.

It also designated what it said were two FTB front companies, China-based Dandong Zhongsheng Industry & Trade Co Ltd and Korea Ungum Corporation, which is based in North Korea.

The United States has kept up its pressure campaign on North Korea even as U.S. President Donald Trump has pursued talks with the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, to denuclearize.

Russia on Friday denied a Wall Street Journal report that it was allowing thousands of new North Korean labourers into the country and granting them work permits in a potential breach of U.N. sanctions. (Reuters)

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