Behind the controversy over the Trump administration’s approach to North Korea, a quiet campaign has been under way for more than a year at the State Department to pressure Pyongyang around the globe, and is beginning to show results.
WASHINGTON — Behind the controversy over the Trump administration’s approach to North Korea, a quiet campaign has been under way for more than a year at the State Department to pressure Pyongyang around the globe, and is beginning to show results.
U. S. officials have asked countries to shut down businesses owned by the North Korean government, remove North Korean vessels from ship registries, end flights by the country’s national air carrier and expel its ambassadors. At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit earlier this year, U. S. diplomats made sure North Korea couldn’t secure any bilateral meetings.
Mexico, Peru, Spain and Kuwait all expelled their North Korean ambassadors after the U. S. warned that Pyongyang was using its embassies to ship contraband and possibly weapons components in diplomatic pouches and earn currency for the regime.
