U.S. Announces ‘Largest’ Sanctions on North Korea

Date: 23 February 2018 - 21:49

News ID: ۵۰۳۷۲

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- The United States was due to announce its largest package of sanctions against North Korea on Friday as South Korea readies itself for further talks with its leaders.
Tougher sanctions may jeopardize the latest detente between the two Koreas, illustrated by the North’s participation in the Winter Olympics in the South, amid preparations for talks about a possible summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
A senior U.S. administration official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, called the new penalties "the largest package of new sanctions against the North Korea regime”, without giving details.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence had hinted at such a plan two weeks ago during a stop in Tokyo that preceded his visit to South Korea for the Pyeongchang Olympics.
North Korea last year conducted dozens of missile launches and its sixth and largest nuclear test as it pursues its goal of developing a nuclear-armed missile capable of reaching the United States. It defends the weapons programs as essential to deter U.S. aggression.
But it has been more than two months since its last missile test.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he wants to boost the "warm climate of reconciliation and dialogue” with South Korea, which hosts 28,500 U.S. troops, after a high-level delegation, including his sister, returned from the Olympics.
In an extension of that rapprochement, the North agreed on Friday to hold working-level talks on Tuesday for the Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics on the North’s side of the border village of Panmunjom.
The new U.S. sanctions were to be announced while Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, is visiting South Korea.
Ivanka Trump’s visit coincides with that of a sanctioned North Korean official, Kim Yong Chol. His delegation was to attend the closing ceremony and also meet Moon.
The Blue House has said there are no official opportunities for U.S. and North Korean officials to meet.
North Korea on Thursday accused UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of being a "kind of henchman who is representing the United States" after the UN chief said sanctions were essential to pressure Pyongyang, AFP reported.
North Korea's mission to the United Nations released a statement complaining of "reckless remarks" by Guterres during the Munich Security Conference last week.
"This is nothing but an absurd sophistry inappropriate to his duty as secretary-general of the United Nations and only make us to think whether he is a kind of henchman who is representing the United States," said the North Korean mission in a statement.
North Korea argued that the United States was at fault for the crisis on the Korean peninsula and that Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests were a legitimate form of self-defense.
Guterres' remarks were "ill-minded", said the mission, before requesting that the UN chief "refrain from his behavior acts like somnambulist any further."
Led by the United States, the Security Council last year imposed three new sets of sanctions on North Korea aimed at piling pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile tests.