N. Korea: Trump will ‘pay dearly’ for threats
Meanwhile, U.S. imposes a new round of sanctions
UNITED NATIONS — President Donald Trump announced Thursday a new round of sanctions against North Korea as he struggles to confront the country’s determination to build a nuclear arsenal.
After threatening earlier this week to “totally destroy” North Korea if it uses its nuclear weaponry against a U.S. territory or allies, Trump told reporters he was issuing a new executive order, adding more sanctions to those that the United States and allies already have imposed.
He said the measures would target North Korea’s textiles, fishing industry and shipping. Sanctions against those industries are already in place, so it was not clear what was different about the additional ones.
Later Thursday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that North Korea’s top diplomat says his country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean to fulfill leader Kim Jong Un’s vow to take the “highest-level” of action against the United States.
Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho’s comments Thursday on the sidelines of a United Nations gathering followed an extraordinary direct statement by Kim in response to Trump, saying the U.S. president would “pay dearly” for his threats.
Kim said that Trump is “unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country.” He also described the president as “a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire.”
“I will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly for his speech calling for totally
The U.S. Treasury Department will be able to blacklist any businesses and individuals who trade or do financial work with North Korea.
destroying the DPRK,” said the statement carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency in a dispatch issued from Pyongyang on this morning.
DPRK is the abbreviation of the communist country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Kim characterized Trump’s U.N. speech as “mentally deranged behavior.”
It is unusual for the North Korean leader to issue such a statement in his own name. It will further escalate the war of words between the adversaries as North Korea moves closer to perfecting a nucleartipped missile that could strike America.
Under Trump’s executive order, the U.S. Treasury Department will be able to blacklist any businesses and individuals who trade or do financial work with North Korea.
That could force other nations and foreign businesses to make a choice: “Do business with the United States ... or the lawless regime” of North Korea, Trump said.
He repeated that he wants nothing less than “a complete denuclearization of North Korea.” Many observers call that standard all but impossible, given Pyongyang’s progress to date.
Potentially significant was Trump’s claim that China had agreed to restrict North Korea’s access to its banking system. China is North Korea’s chief ally and responsible for 90 percent of its trade.
The Trump administration has repeatedly sought Beijing’s cooperation in enforcing sanctions.
However, there were questions about whether China had agreed to the measures against North Korea, and the White House would not go into detail.
“Secretary [Steven] Mnuchin [of Treasury] and People’s Bank of China [Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan] had a productive meeting this morning,” said White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah.
Also, China has previously agreed to enforce sanctions against North Korea, only to later pull back.
Richard Nephew, a sanctions expert in the Obama administration, said the new measures represented a “fairly sizable escalation” in pressure against North Korea.
But he said the key will be if the U.S. begins using the new powers to sanction Chinese banks that deal with North Korea.
Already, the U.S. and the U.N. have imposed tough economic sanctions against North Korea that eat away at its export income, imports and revenue from workers its sends overseas.
Trump, asked by a reporter if diplomatic talks with North Korea were still possible, said, “Why not?”
Few diplomats or arms control experts foresee Kim abandoning his nuclear arsenal — now estimated to include 20 to 60 bombs.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called on the country to stop testing ballistic missiles as a confidence-building measure to allow diplomacy to proceed.
Mnuchin said the sanctions that Trump authorized Thursday were stronger because they would target any transaction with North Korea and anyone who facilitated such transaction.