Trump announces ‘heaviest’ sanctions against North Korea

Taiwanese passport holder, 27 companies and 28 ships targeted

The US yesterday said it was imposing its largest package of sanctions on North Korea, intensifying pressure on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

The US Treasury sanctioned one person, 27 companies and 28 ships, according to a statement on its website. The actions block assets held by the firms in the US and prohibit US citizens from dealing with them.

“We imposed today the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before,” Trump said in an address to a conservative activist group in Washington. “And ... hopefully something positive can happen, we will see.”

Those targeted included a Taiwanese passport holder and mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore shipping and energy companies.

‘Evasive maritime activities’

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement the sanctions against the ships would help prevent North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s government from conducting “evasive maritime activities that facilitate illicit coal and fuel transports and erode its abilities to ship goods through international waters”.

At a briefing in Washington, Mnuchin stood next to enlarged photos he said showed December 2017 images that revealed ship-to-ship transfers of fuel and other products destined for North Korea in an attempt to evade sanctions.

Mnuchin said he could not rule out the prospect of the US boarding and inspecting North Korean ships.

The latest sanctions bring the total number of US sanctions against North Korea since 2005 to 450, Mnuchin said, with approximately half of those coming in the last year.

“This is very impactful,” he said. “This is virtually all the ships they’re using at this moment in time.”