US slaps new sanctions on N Korea
SEOUL/WASHINGTON: The US said on Friday it was imposing its largest package of sanctions against North Korea on Friday, intensifying pressure on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear and missile programmes.
The US Treasury sanctioned one person, 27 companies and 28 ships, according to a statement on the US treasury department’s website. The actions block assets held by the firms in the US and prohibit US citizens from dealing with them.
The treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the measures, designed to disrupt North Korean shipping and trading companies and vessels and to further isolate Pyongyang.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the sanctions against the ships would help prevent North Korea from conducting “evasive maritime activities that facilitate illicit coal and fuel transports and erode its abilities to ship goods through international waters.”
The ships are located, registered or flagged in North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama and Comoros, treasury said.
Those targeted included a Taiwanese passport holder and mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore shipping and energy firms.
“We imposed today the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before,” US President Trump said in Washington.
“The president is clearly frustrated and rightly so over the efforts that have failed in the past and also over the uptick in testing and the advances we’ve seen in the North Korean program,” a senior administration official told reporters.
At another briefing, Mnuchin stood next to enlarged photos he said showed images that revealed ship-to-ship transfers of fuel and other products destined for North Korea in an attempt to evade sanctions. “This is very impactful. We’re going to do everything to stop these ship-to-ship transfers,” Mnuchin said.