WASHINGTON – The US Treasury on Tuesday slapped punitive sanctions on twoRussian shipping firms and six Russian-flagged vessels for violatingeconomic sanctions on North Korea.

The Treasury said Primorye Maritime Logistics Co. and Gudzon Shipping Co.own a tanker, the M/V Patriot, which conducted ship-to-ship transfers ofoil to North Korea tankers twice earlier this year.

That violated a UN-backed embargo on doing business with North Korea(DPRK), part of an effort to pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclearweapons and ballistic missiles programs.

“Ship-to-ship transfers with North Korea-flagged vessels from Russia orelsewhere of any goods being supplied, sold, or transferred to or from theDPRK are prohibited under the UN Security Council resolutions,” TreasurySecretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

“Consequences for violating these sanctions will remain in place until wehave achieved the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea.”

The Treasury listed five other vessels owned by Gudzon under the sanctionsannouncement, which freezes any of the companies’ assets in US jurisdictionand severely restricts their access to the global financial system.

In a separate announcement, the Treasury blacklisted two companies and twoindividuals whom it said were involved in helping another firm,Divetechnoservices, get around sanctions it was hit with in June.

Divetechnoservices and three officials of the firm were originallysanctioned for supplying and supporting the government’s underwatercapabilities in monitoring and hacking subsea communications cables aroundthe world. – APP/AFP