11 nations, EU reaffirm North Korea denuclearization goal, back sanctions enforcement

South Korea, the United States, and nine other like-minded partners, along with the European Union, on Wednesday reaffirmed their commitment to the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea. They also highlighted recent sanctions targeting Pyongyang’s overseas workers, cyber activities, and military cooperation with Russia.In a joint statement, the participants welcomed sanctions imposed by the U.S., Australia, and the European Union in October to disrupt North Korea’s efforts to finance its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The statement was issued by South Korea, the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain, and the EU.The countries highlighted findings by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), which shed light on Pyongyang’s military cooperation with Russia, cyber-enabled IT worker schemes, and overseas labor operations. The MSMT and EU reiterated their commitment to the denuclearization of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea’s official name.Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced fresh sanctions against 10 individuals and one entity accused of facilitating North Korean IT worker schemes targeting American businesses and generating illicit revenue for Pyongyang’s weapons programs. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed these sanctions on October 28, 2026.These schemes involve North Korean IT workers fraudulently obtaining employment with companies in the U.S. and elsewhere, with Pyongyang diverting most of their wages to fund its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs. The sanctioned entity is named First Financial and Technical Development Center, and six of the sanctioned individuals are associated with this firm. Two of the sanctioned individuals are Russian citizens, while the others appear to be North Korean.Russian intermediary Vitold Viktorovich Obertas has allegedly converted approximately $2 million in cryptocurrency and handled at least $1.25 million in other currency transactions for North Korean officials since January 2025. Another Russian citizen, Ilya Aleksandrovich Boykov, is accused of laundering money for a North Korean company by exchanging and converting approximately $3.5 million in cryptocurrency since 2024.North Korean IT workers use fake documents, stolen identities, and fabricated personas to secure legitimate jobs. The North Korean regime funnels the majority of these workers’ earnings into its weapons programs. These workers may also abuse access to corporate networks to steal sensitive data, deploy malware, and compromise business systems. North Korean IT worker operations span dozens of countries and generate an estimated $250 million to $600 million annually for the North Korean regime.The participating countries also urged all United Nations member states, particularly permanent members of the Security Council, to fully implement sanctions resolutions against North Korea.