Seoul's Foreign Ministry says the latest U.S. sanctions against North Korea appear to reflect Washington's resolve to use both sanctions and dialogue to achieve the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. 

A ministry official expressed this stance in a text messages sent to reporters on Friday. 

The U.S. government on Thursday sanctioned one North Korean individual and two companies based in China and Russia for their alleged involvement in employing North Korean workers.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement that the sanctions are intended to stop the flow of illicit revenue to North Korea from overseas information technology workers disguising their true identities.

He warned the IT industry, businesses and individuals across the globe to take precautions to ensure that they are not unwittingly employing North Korean workers for technology projects.