A list of UN sanctions approved Thursday against North Korea over its weapons programs

UN sanctions approved Thursday against North Korea

UNITED NATIONS — A panel of the U.N. Security Council approved sanctions Thursday against North Korea that include travel bans and asset freezes against five individuals, four companies and one state agency. It also banned sales of two materials used in ballistic missiles.

The panel identified:

—General Bureau of Atomic Energy, based in Pyongyang. North Korea’s chief agency responsible for its nuclear program. Includes the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center and its plutonium production research reactor, and fuel fabrication and reprocessing facilities.

—Namchongang Trading Corp., in Pyongyang, subordinate to the bureau. Namchongang has been involved in procuring Japanese vacuum pumps found at a North Korea nuclear facility and other nuclear-related materials linked to a German individual. It also has been involved in the purchase of aluminum tubes and other equipment for a uranium enrichment program from the late 1990s.

—Korea Hyoksin Trading Corp., based in Pyongyang, subordinate to Korea Ryonbong General Corp., targeted for sanctions in April, and involved in weapons-making.

—Korean Tangun Trading Corp., based in Pyongyang, subordinate to North Korea’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences. It is responsible for procuring materials and technology for defense research and development.

—Hong Kong Electronics, based in Kish Island, Iran, which has transferred millions of dollars of proliferation-related funds to Tanchon Commercial Bank and KOMID, both sanctioned by the panel in April. It facilitated the movement of money from Iran to North Korea on behalf of KOMID.

—Yun Ho-Jin, 64, director of the Namchongang Trading Corporation, which oversees the import of items needed for the uranium enrichment program. Also known as Yun Ho-Chin.

—Ri Je-Son, director of the General Bureau of Atomic Energy, who was born in 1938 and is also known as Ri Che-Son.

—Hwang Sok-Hwa, chief of the bureau’s Scientific Guidance section, who served on the Science Committee inside the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.

—Ri Hong-Sop, former director of Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center, which oversaw three core facilities that assist in the production of weapons-grade plutonium: the Fuel Fabrication Facility, the Nuclear Reactor, and the Reprocessing Plant. He was born in 1940.

—Han Yu-Ro, director of Korea Ryongaksan General Trading Corp., involved in North Korea’s ballistic missile program.

—Graphite designed or specified for use in Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) machines; and Para-aramid fiber (Kevlar and other Kevlar-like), filament and tape.