WASHINGTON: Two senior US senators called on Monday (Mar 18) for the Trump administration to correct a slowing pace of US sanctions designations on North Korea, saying…
WASHINGTON: Two senior US senators called on Monday (Mar 18) for the Trump administration to correct a slowing pace of US sanctions designations on North Korea, saying there had been a marked decline in the past year of US engagement with Pyongyang.
In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Republican Cory Gardner and Democrat Ed Markey called for a recommitment to robust enforcement of US and United Nations sanctions on North Korea.
The senators, the chairman and ranking member respectively of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, complained that the pace of sanctions designations on North Korea had « slowed considerably » in the past year of US diplomatic engagement with the country.
They cited research by the Foundation for Defence of Democracies think tank saying that the Trump administration had sanctioned 182 persons and entities for North Korea sanctions violations since Mar 31,2017, but only 26 since Feb 23,2018, « despite ample evidence of illicit behaviour from Pyongyang and its enablers.
