Washington, Nov 21 (AP) The Trump administration plans toannounce new sanctions on North Korea today, after declaringit a state sponsor of terrorism in the latest push to isolatethe pariah nation.
North Korea has joined Iran, Sudan and Syria on America'sterror blacklist, a largely symbolic step as theadministration already has the authority to impose virtuallyany sanctions it wants on Kim Jong Un's government over itsnuclear weapons development.
As part of its "maximum pressure" campaign, PresidentDonald Trump said the Treasury Department would impose moresanctions on North Korea and "related persons" starting today,without hinting who or what would be targeted. The move ispart of rolling effort to deprive Pyongyang of funds for itsnuclear and missile programs and leave it internationallyisolated.
"It will be the highest level of sanctions by the timeit's finished over a two-week period," Trump said.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday the pressurecampaign was starting to bite in Pyongyang, which is alreadyfacing unprecedented U.N.-mandated sanctions over its nuclearand ballistic missile tests. Tillerson said anecdotal evidenceand intelligence suggests the North is now suffering fuelshortages, with queues at gas stations, and its revenues aredown.
The United States has been applying sanctions of its ownas well.
In Tokyo, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed themove, telling reporters Japan supports the step as a way toincrease pressure on North Korea. But Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesman Lu Kang expressed concern.
Lu said Tuesday that the situation is "highly sensitive"and that it would be "helpful to bring all parties back to thenegotiation table instead of doing the opposite."Da Zhigang, a North Korea expert at the HeilongjiangAcademy of Social Sciences, said the move "will arousediplomatic reactions and hatred toward the U.S. from NorthKorea" and could even prompt the North to resume missiletests.
In September, Trump opened the way for the U.S. to punishforeign companies dealing with North Korea. He issued anexecutive order expanding the Treasury Department's ability totarget anyone conducting significant trade in goods, servicesor technology with the North, and to ban them from interactingwith the U.S. financial system.
Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow on Northeast Asiaat the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Treasury couldbe preparing more designations against North Korean entitiesrelated to the terrorism listing, or possibly Chinese or othercompanies violating the September order.
A potential target would be Chinese banks that serve asNorth Korea's conduit to the international system. Such a movewould irk Beijing, whose help Trump is counting on to put aneconomic squeeze on Pyongyang. China recently sent itshighest-level envoy to North Korea in two years to discuss thetense state of affairs on the Korean Peninsula.
Tillerson urged China, which accounts for 90 per cent ofNorth Korea's external trade, to take unilateral steps to cutfuel supplies to its wayward neighbor. China, which is callingfor dialogue to ease the nuclear tensions, is reluctant toexert economic pressure that could destabilize the North.
Tillerson acknowledged a two-month pause in the North'srapid tempo of nuclear and missile tests and said there wasstill hope for diplomacy. With tougher sanctions in theoffing, he warned Kim, "This is only going to get worse untilyou're ready to come and talk."The terror designation, however, is likely to exacerbatesour relations between Washington and Pyongyang that haveturned uglier with name-calling between Trump and Kim. NorthKorea shows no interest in talks aimed at getting it to giveup its nukes.
North Korea has been on and off the terror list over theyears. It was designated for two decades because of itsinvolvement in international terror attacks in the 1980s, thentaken off in 2008 to smooth the way for nuclear talks thatsoon failed. (AP)IJT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.