The United States has sanctioned five individuals and one firm who allegedly helped generate illicit revenue for North Korean weapons programs, including by selling North Korean weapons to Myanmar’s military regime. 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday sanctioned two North Koreans, three Myanmar nationals and one Myanmar company.

The department said that Kim Yong-ju, the deputy representative of the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, played a role in the sales of aerial bomb guidance kits, bombs and airborne monitoring equipment to Myanmar’s Air Force. 

The agency accused another North Korean, Nam Chol-ung, a representative of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, of having built a sprawling network of companies and restaurants across Laos and Thailand to launder foreign currency for Pyongyang.

The department said that the targeted action focused on overseas representatives of North Korean government agencies who are key to the regime’s ability to finance unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, including the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation and the Reconnaissance General Bureau.