The United States has blacklisted a network accused of aiding financial payments between Russia and North Korea, two isolated countries that have grown financially and militarily closer amid the Kremlin's war in Ukraine.

The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on a network of five groups and one person for enabling payments between Russia and North Korea to support Moscow's war in Ukraine and Pyongyang's weapons programs,

North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile in what would be it second such barrage this month, as Kim Jong Un’s regime intensifies a threat to expand its nuclear weapons program.