Trump orders new sanctions on North Korea N-programme

United Nations, Sept. 21: The United States and the European Union on Thursday moved to impose new unilateral sanctions on North Korea as South Korea warned the United Nations of the risk of accidentally igniting a war.

After threatening to “totally destroy North Korea” in his first address to the General Assembly, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting foreign companies doing business with North Korea ratcheting up pressure on Pyongyang.

In Brussels, the 28-country EU agreed to a ban on investment in North Korea and on EU exports of oil, diplomatic sources said. Mr Trump said China’s central bank had ordered national banks to curb their dealings with North Korea describing the move as “very bold” and “unexpected”.

The executive order would broaden that approach in a bid to force Chinese banks and Russian importers to decide between doing business with North Korea or being blacklisted by the United States.

“Our new executive order will cut off sources of revenue that fund North Korea’s efforts to develop the deadliest weapons known to humankind,” Mr Trump said.

At a Security Council meeting later on Thursday, US secretary of state Rex Tillerson was to push for strict enforcement of a new raft of international sanctions targeting North Korea’s exports and its energy supplies. French President Emmanuel Macron surmised that the “military threats can serve a purpose from a tactical point of view” to jolt Pyongyang into changing course.

“When you consider him and his father, it was only when such threats were made that negotiations did happen,” Mr Macron told reporters. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in “clear disagreement”.

Any kind of military solution (to the North Korean crisis) is completely deficient

— Angela Merkel, German Chancellor