Trump unveils new sanctions as North Korea tensions mount
● Measures will target individual companies and institutions
President Donald Trump yesterday signed an executive order aimed at tightening an economic noose around North Korea, days after he threatened to “totally destroy” the country if forced to defend the United States or its allies.
The new order enables the US to sanction individual companies and institutions that finance trade with North Korea. It adds to Us-led international pressure against Kim Jong-un’s expanded missile and nuclear testing programme that has stoked fears of nuclear war and dominated the president’s debut at this week’s UN General Assembly.
The announcement came as Mr Trump met in New York with leaders from close US allies South Korea and Japan, the nations most imperilled by North Korea’s threats.
Mr Trump said the order would also disrupt other trade avenues for North Korea in an effort to halt its nuclear weapons programme. The president said “tolerance for this disgraceful practice must end now”.
He also saluted China’s central bank for what he said was a move to stop its banks from trading with North Korea. China is North Korea’s main trading partner and conduit for international transactions. Washington has been pushing China to scale back economic and financial ties to further isolate Pyongyang.
Mr Trump, in his Tuesday address to the UN, said it was “far past time” for the world to confront Mr Kim, declaring that the North Korean leader’s pursuit of nuclear weapons poses a threat to “the entire world with an unthinkable loss of human life”.
“Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime,” Mr Trump said, mocking the North Korean leader even as he sketched out potentially cataclysmic consequences. The president spoke of his own nation’s “patience”,
0 President Moon Jae-in addresses the UN General Assembly but said that if “forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea”.
Vice President Mike Pence said: “We do not desire a military conflict. But the president has made it very clear, as he did at the UN this week, that all options are on the table and we are simply not going to tolerate a rogue regime in Pyongyang obtaining usable nuclear weapons that could be mounted on a ballistic missile and threaten the people of the United States or our allies.”
The president yesterday met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, seeking to show a common front in facing the North Korean threat despite marked differences in outlook.
Speaking at the UN, Moon took a less confrontational stance than Mr Trump and Mr Abe in their addresses to the world body. Mr Moon urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and seek dialogue. He said the standoff needed to be “man- aged stably”. Still, when he sat down later with Mr Trump, he complimented the president’s “very strong” UN address, saying it would “help to change North Korea”.
Mr Trump’s language was rare for a US president at the rostrum of the United Nations. It drew a sharp rebuke from the North’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, who said: “It would be a dog’s dream if he intended to scare us with the sound of a dog barking.”
Despite Mr Trump’s rhetoric, his administration insists it is seeking a diplomatic resolution. Any military intervention designed to eliminate the North’s nuclear and missile arsenal would almost surely entail dire risks for US allies in the region, particularly South Korea. Fears of a military confrontation are increasing.
North Korea conducted a series of provocative launches in recent months, including a pair of intercontinental missiles believed capable of striking the continental US and another pair that soared over Japanese territory. It also exploded its most powerful nuclear bomb to date.