Mubasher: US imposed sanctions on Russian port service agency and Chinese companies for facilitating alcohol and tobacco shipments to North Korea.

Sanctions were imposed on China’s Dalian Sun Moon Star International Logistics and its affiliate SINSMS Pte in Singapore, citing that they generated over $1 billion per annum from shipping alcohol and cigarette products to Pyongyang, the US Treasury said in a statement on Wednesday.

Moreover, the US department sanctioned Russian-based Profinet Pte and its director general, Vasili Aleksandrovich Kolchanov, for providing port services at least six times to North Korean ships, while Kolchanov was involved in North Korea-related deals, interacting directly with representatives from Pyongyang in Russia.

“The tactics that these entities based in China, Singapore, and Russia are using to attempt to evade sanctions are prohibited under US law, and all facets of the shipping industry have a responsibility to abide by them or expose themselves to serious risks,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.

Under the sanctions order, US citizens are prohibited to deal with any of those mentioned in the order, and any of their properties in the US “must be blocked.”

The sanctions came at the time when Washington has been exerting pressure on Pyongyang to abandon nuclear arsenal programme.