The Trump administration has unleashed sweeping new sanctions against a global arms trafficking network tied to North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction programs and illicit weapons sales to Myanmar’s military junta, the State Department announced Thursday. Myanmar was formerly known as Burma.
According to the State Department, the coordinated action — carried out in partnership with the Treasury Department — targets five individuals and one entity accused of generating illicit revenue for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Officials said the goal is to choke off the Kim regime’s ability to finance its growing military threat through foreign fronts and crookef deals.
At the heart of the sanctions are two notorious North Korean organizations: the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, known as KOMID, and the Reconnaissance General Bureau, or RGB. KOMID, also called 221 General Bureau, has long served as Pyongyang’s primary arms dealer, while the RGB oversees intelligence operations abroad. Both have been sanctioned previously by the United States and the United Nations, but continue to operate through global networks of front companies and agents.
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said one of the most significant targets is Royal Shune Lei Company Limited, a Burmese arms broker accused of brokering weapons sales for Myanmar’s military since 2022. Its 52-year-old chief executive, Tin Myo Aung, and a 45-year-old employee, Kyaw Thu Myo Myint, allegedly traveled to China to meet North Korean representatives and arrange the purchase of bomb guidance kits, bombs, and surveillance gear for Myanmar’s air force. Another Burmese national, 54-year-old Aung Ko Ko Oo, was identified as a director of the company who helped facilitate the deals.
Those efforts, U.S. officials said, were aided by 41-year-old Kim Yong Ju, the deputy KOMID representative in Beijing, who worked with the Burmese executives to coordinate the shipments. Treasury said KOMID even provided samples of bomb guidance kits for testing in order to finalize orders.
The sanctions also struck at a senior North Korean operative: 56-year-old Nam Chol Ung, an intelligence officer tied to the RGB. According to U.S. officials, Nam has run a sprawling business empire in Laos and Thailand for more than a decade, operating restaurants, a resort, and import-export companies that laundered foreign currency and smuggled North Korean goods, including tobacco. The money, they said, was funneled back to Pyongyang to help bankroll Kim’s weapons programs.
“North Korea’s unlawful weapons programs are a direct threat to America and our allies,” said John K. Hurley, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. “We will continue to dismantle the financial networks that sustain them.”
The sanctions freeze all U.S.-linked assets belonging to the named individuals and entities. Americans are prohibited from doing business with them, and foreign banks that knowingly assist risk secondary sanctions that could cut off their access to the U.S. financial system.
The Trump administration stressed that the action is not about punishment for its own sake, but about forcing change. Officials noted Myanmar’s junta, which seized power in a 2021 coup, has relied on indiscriminate bombings against civilians — and that weapons from North Korea are fueling that bloodshed.
“The ultimate goal,” the Treasury Department said in a news release, “is to bring about a positive change in behavior.”
The sanctions follow Kim Jong Un’s recent speech to his country’s parliament, during which he said he still holds “good memories” of meeting with Trump, and said he is open to renewed dialogue – but with certain conditions.
If the U.S. drops what he called a “delusional obsession with denuclearization” then Pyongyang has “no reason not to” resume diplomacy, he said.
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