Hillary announces new US sanctions against N Korea
Thursday, 22 July 2010
SEOUL, July 21 (AP): US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Wednesday that Washington will impose new sanctions on communist North Korea in a bid to stem the regime's illicit atomic ambitions.
Clinton, speaking at a joint news conference in Seoul after holding unprecedented security talks with US and South Korean defense and military officials, said the sanctions are part of measures designed to rein in the regime's nuclear activities by stamping out illegal moneymaking ventures used to fund the program.
She said the sanctions would be aimed at the sale or procurement of arms and related goods as well as luxury items used to fund the regime's activities.
The US will freeze assets as well as prevent some businesses and individuals from traveling abroad, and collaborate with banks to stop illegal financial transactions. The sanctions also will seek to stop the abuse of diplomatic privileges in order to carry out illegal activities, Clinton said.
"These measures are not directed at the people of North Korea, who have suffered too long due to the misguided priorities of their government," she said. "They are directed at the destabilizing, illicit and provocative policies pursued by that government."
The UN Security Council has imposed stiff sanctions on North Korea in recent years to punish the regime for defying the world body by testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and illegally selling arms and weapons.
With few allies and diminishing sources of aid, impoverished North Korea is believed to be turning to illicit ventures to raise much-needed cash. Pyongyang also walked away last year from a disarmament-for-aid pact with five other nations that had provided the country with fuel oil and other concessions.
Clinton, making a high-profile trip to South Korea with Defense Secretary Robert Gates just four months after the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, urged North Korea to turn away from its path toward continued isolation.
"From the beginning of the Obama administration, we have made clear that there is a path open to the DPRK to achieve the security and international respect it seeks," she said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"North Korea can cease its provocative behavior, halt its threats and belligerence towards its neighbors, take irreversible steps to fulfill its denuclearization commitments and comply with international law," Clinton said.
The US and South Korea blame the North for the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan warship, which killed 46 South Korean sailors in what would be the worst military attack on South Korea since the Korean War of the 1950s.
Clinton, speaking at a joint news conference in Seoul after holding unprecedented security talks with US and South Korean defense and military officials, said the sanctions are part of measures designed to rein in the regime's nuclear activities by stamping out illegal moneymaking ventures used to fund the program.
She said the sanctions would be aimed at the sale or procurement of arms and related goods as well as luxury items used to fund the regime's activities.
The US will freeze assets as well as prevent some businesses and individuals from traveling abroad, and collaborate with banks to stop illegal financial transactions. The sanctions also will seek to stop the abuse of diplomatic privileges in order to carry out illegal activities, Clinton said.
"These measures are not directed at the people of North Korea, who have suffered too long due to the misguided priorities of their government," she said. "They are directed at the destabilizing, illicit and provocative policies pursued by that government."
The UN Security Council has imposed stiff sanctions on North Korea in recent years to punish the regime for defying the world body by testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and illegally selling arms and weapons.
With few allies and diminishing sources of aid, impoverished North Korea is believed to be turning to illicit ventures to raise much-needed cash. Pyongyang also walked away last year from a disarmament-for-aid pact with five other nations that had provided the country with fuel oil and other concessions.
Clinton, making a high-profile trip to South Korea with Defense Secretary Robert Gates just four months after the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, urged North Korea to turn away from its path toward continued isolation.
"From the beginning of the Obama administration, we have made clear that there is a path open to the DPRK to achieve the security and international respect it seeks," she said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"North Korea can cease its provocative behavior, halt its threats and belligerence towards its neighbors, take irreversible steps to fulfill its denuclearization commitments and comply with international law," Clinton said.
The US and South Korea blame the North for the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan warship, which killed 46 South Korean sailors in what would be the worst military attack on South Korea since the Korean War of the 1950s.