The State Department announced that the Changgwang Sinyong Corporation, which has been found to be in violation of US arms export control laws on at least five previous occasions, including earlier this month, would be subject to additional sanctions.

"Additionally, because North Korea is a country with a non-market economy that is not a former member of the Warsaw Pact ... the following sanctions shall be applied for three years and eight months to all activities of the North Korean government relating to the development or production of missile equipment or technology and all activities of the North Korean government affecting the development or production of electronics, space systems or equipment, and military aircraft," the department said.

Those sanctions include the denial of all US government licenses for the sale of such equipment, a denial of US contracts for the equipment and a ban on its importation into the United States, it said in a notice published in the Federal Register.

The sanctions are entirely symbolic as the United States already prohibits almost all trade with North Korea.

Changgwang Sinyong was last hit with US sanctions on July 3 for arms sales to Iran that the State Department said could "make a material contribution to weapons of mass destruction or missiles."

In addition, it was punished for the same offense in 2001 and in 2000, 1998 and 1996 for violating missile-specific US export regulations.

In March of this year, the company was penalized by the United States in March for an alleged barter deal in which Washington claimed Pyongyang swapped missile components for expertise in developing a nuclear program from Pakistan.

SPACE.WIRE