The EU imposed sanctions against the head of Primorye for gifts to Kim Jong-un

The EU imposed sanctions against the Governor of Primorye Oleg Kozhemyako and the Eastern Stevedoring Company (VSK, part of the Global Ports holding company Delo) for promoting the development of military cooperation between Russia and the DPRK, the EU Council reported.

RBC sent a request to the press service of Global Ports and asked the press service of the governor of the Primorsky Territory for comment. The EU noted that Kozhemyako, after the visit of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to Russia in September, gave him weapons and a military uniform as a gift, which is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The Primorye government reported that Kozhemyako presented Kim Jong-un with a set of armor protection, five kamikaze drones, a Geranium-25 aircraft-type reconnaissance drone with a vertical take-off function, and clothing invisible to thermal imagers.

The inclusion of the Eastern Stevedoring Company in the EU sanctions list was also explained by connections with the DPRK. The explanation for the sanctions states that “thousands of containers with weapons and ammunition” were delivered to the DPRK from Russia through the Far Eastern port, which is operated by the Eastern Stevedoring Company. “As the operator of the Vostochny port, Vostochny Stevedoring Company was involved in the supply of weapons from the DPRK to the Russian Federation in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718 (2006) and Resolution 1874 (2009),” the EU Council said in a statement.

Pyongyang has repeatedly denied information about arms supplies to Russia. There is no evidence of arms supplies from North Korea to Russia, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in October 2023 .

Eastern Stevedoring Company was founded in 2004. At the end of 2023, the company’s profit was 16.21 billion rubles, revenue  - 33.78 billion rubles.

The company is one of the largest container terminals in Russia. it operates in the port of Vostochny and specializes in transshipment of container cargo. The port is the third largest in terms of cargo turnover in Russia. In 2023, this figure was 86.6 million tons.

In February, VSK came under US sanctions , and on May 17 - under British sanctions.

In April, South Korea imposed sanctions against the companies Intellect and Sodeistvie, as well as their representatives Sergei Kozlov and Alexander Pamfilov, who, according to Seoul, were involved in “financing nuclear and missile development” of Pyongyang by attracting North Korean specialists to work in Russia.