SEOUL – The United States yesterday announced new sanctions against North Korea, targeted against its leadership, and warned of serious consequences if it again attacked the South.
Relations on the peninsula have turned increasingly hostile after South Korea accused the North of sinking one of its warships in March, killings 46 sailors.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Washington was ready to return to international talks over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme if Pyongyang sent a “positive signal”, but that there had been none so far.
She said the sanctions aimed to prevent North Korea selling arms and procuring luxury goods, as well as to put out of business North Korean entities operating illicitly overseas.
“We are aiming very specifically, after much intensive research built on what was done before but not limited to that, to target the leadership, to target their assets,” Mrs Clinton told a news conference in Seoul with defence secretary Robert Gates.
She insisted the additional sanctions were not aimed at ordinary North Koreans, who make up one of the world’s poorest societies.
China, the North’s only major ally, expressed “deep concern” after the United States and South Korea said they would start large-scale joint military drills on July 25th. State television on Tuesday showed the Chinese navy conducting its own exercises. – (Reuters)