Trump hits North Korea with fresh round of sanctions

US: ‘Maximum pressure’ to hit nuclear programme

The Trump administration is preparing new sanctions on North Korea, a day after declaring it a state sponsor of terrorism in a move to put additional pressure on Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

North Korea has joined Iran, Sudan and Syria on America’s terror blacklist, a largely symbolic step as the administration already has the authority to impose virtually any sanctions it wants on Kim Jong Un’s government over its nuclear weapons development.

As part of its “maximum pressure”, President Donald Trump said the Treasury Department would impose more sanctions on North Korea and “related persons” without hinting who or what would be targeted.

The move is part of a roll- ing effort to deprive Pyongyang of funds for its nuclear and missile programmes and leave it internationally isolated.

“It will be the highest level of sanctions by the time it’s finished over a twoweek period,” Mr Trump said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Monday the pressure campaign was starting to bite in Pyong- yang, which is already facing unprecedented UN-mandated sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

Mr Tillerson said anecdotal evidence and intelligence suggests the North is now suffering fuel shortages, with queues at petrol stations, and its revenues are down.

The US has been applying sanctions of its own as well.

In Tokyo, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed the move, telling reporters Japan supports the step as a way to increase pressure on North Korea. But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang expressed concern.

Mr Lu said that the situation is “highly sensitive” and that it would be “helpful to bring all parties back to the negotiation table instead of doing the opposite”.

Da Zhigang, a North Korea expert at the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said the move “will arouse diplomatic reactions and hatred toward the US from North Korea” and could even prompt the North to resume missile tests.

An editorial yesterday in North Korea’s ruling party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, called Mr Trump a “heinous criminal” who had insulted the dignity of the country’s supreme leadership and its socialist system during his recent visit to South Korea.

The editorial, carried by the state-run news agency, threatened “merciless punishment”.

It did not mention the terror designation.

Donald Trump