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.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on a network of five groups and one person, based in Russia and the Georgian region of South Ossetia, for enabling payments between Russia and North Korea, the Treasury Department said.

North Korea sent its foreign minister to Russia for her second trip in less than a year to the major backer of Kim Jong Un’s regime. The move comes as Pyongyang readies for a parliamentary meeting that will likely approve measures that raise tensions with South Korea.

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed expanding bilateral relations. Choe traveled to Russia earlier this week, according to the Russian embassy in North Korea,

North Korea has been dispatching millions of shells from its aging stockpiles and boosting domestic production to supply Russian forces.

North Korean Foreign Minister Choi Son Hui departed for a trip to Russia, state media reported Tuesday, as the two regimes continue to strengthen ties amid growing international concern about their military cooperation.

In the wake of the Ukraine war, Russia has formed a close alliance with China, the world's second-biggest economy, and boosted trade ties with other major economies, such as India. Yet according to the head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency GUR,

Because North Korea is massively supplying military products to Russia, it remains Kiev's “biggest problem.” On Saturday, at a conference in Kiev, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov,