US imposes heaviest North Korea sanctions; targets ships, firms

WASHINGTON: The United States 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. In addressing the Trump administration´s biggest national security challenge, 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 United States and prohibit US citizens from dealing with them. North Korea´s missile and nuclear programme is seeking to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the US mainland.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have taunted each other through the media and in August Trump threatened to go beyond sanctions by bringing "fire and fury like the world has never seen.

"The Treasury´s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the measures, which are designed to disrupt North Korean shipping and trading companies and vessels and to further isolate Pyongyang. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement the sanctions against the ships would help prevent Kim´s government 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," Trump said in an address to a conservative activist group in Washington. "And ... hopefully something positive can happen, we will see.

"The United States has led an international campaign to tighten sanctions on North Korea to force it to give up its development of weapons and missiles program. "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 said at a background briefing for reporters.

At another briefing in Washington, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin stood next to enlarged photos he said showed December 2017 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 impact full. We´re going to do everything to stop these ship-to-ship transfers," Mnuchin said. Washington "also issued an advisory alerting the public to the significant sanctions risks to those continuing to enable shipments of goods to and from North Korea. "Tougher sanctions may jeopardise the latest detente between the two Koreas, illustrated by the North´s participation in the Winter Olympics in the South, amid preparations for talks about a possible summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

North Korea last year conducted dozens of missile launches and its sixth and largest nuclear test in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions. It defends the weapons programmes as essential to deter US aggression.

It has been more than two months since North Korea´s last missile test. Kim said he wants to boost the "warm climate of reconciliation and dialogue" with South Korea, which hosts 28,500 US troops, after a high-level delegation, including his sister, returned from the Olympics. —Reuters