The United States on Tuesday unveiled new sanctions targeting North Korean shipping and Chinese traders doing business with Pyongyang, again raising the pressure on the pariah state to abandon its nuclear program.
The United States on Tuesday unveiled new sanctions targeting North Korean shipping and Chinese traders doing business with Pyongyang, again raising the pressure on the pariah state to abandon its nuclear program.
The measures came a day after President Donald Trump declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, a spot on a US blacklist Pyongyang had shed nearly a decade ago.
«These designations include companies that have engaged in trade with North Korea cumulatively worth hundreds of millions of dollars,» US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
«We are also sanctioning the shipping and transportation companies, and their vessels, that facilitate North Korea’s trade and its deceptive maneuvers.»
On Monday, Trump had said the sanctions announcement would be the first in a series of moves over the next two weeks that would reinforce his «maximum pressure campaign» against Kim Jong-Un’s regime.
As had been expected, the Treasury measures make use of existing US directives against North Korean trade, but expand their scope to take in more companies and individuals.
Most importantly, they expand the list of Chinese firms accused of doing business with the North despite promises from Beijing that it will honor UN-backed punitive measures.
Trump met China’s President Xi Jinping earlier this month and is bullish about the US-China relationship, but concerns remain that Beijing is not ready to take tough measures against Kim.
— ‘More should be done’ —
In particular, China has been reluctant to cut off oil supplies through a pipeline to North Korea’s lone refinery, fearing that regime collapse could lead to chaos on their common border.
