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U.S. plans sanctions on North Korea after sinking of South Korean warship

21 July 2010 22:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The U.S. said it will intensify sanctions against North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship, targeting members of Kim Jong Ilâ€™s regime and the foreign banks that help sustain the countryâ€™s weapons industry, APA reports quoting â€œBloombergâ€.
â€œThese measures are not directed at the people of North Korea, who have suffered too long due to the misguided and malign priorities of their government,â€ Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a press briefing in Seoul today. â€œThey are directed at the destabilizing, illicit, and provocative policies pursued by that government.â€
Clintonâ€™s sanctions announcement may raise tensions as she heads to Hanoi for a meeting on region security that includes her counterparts from North Korea and China. North Korea, whose economy has been battered by existing trade restrictions, has threatened to retaliate against any punitive actions over an incident it denies any part in.
â€œThe measures seem to be aimed at what would hurt North Korea the most: its cash line,â€ said Kim Yong Hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Seoul-based Dongguk University. â€œIt remains to be seen how far the U.S. is willing to push it through, as it wouldnâ€™t want a total collapse in dialogue.â€
North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun arrived in Hanoi today for the summit on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Beijing. He smiled and waved to reporters at the airport before climbing into a Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan without making a comment.
Lessons Learned
The U.S. has learned lessons from existing sanctions that will help make the new measures more effective, an administration official traveling with Clinton, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters. Diplomats involved in illegal activities, such as money laundering and counterfeiting, would be targeted, a second official said.
UN sanctions imposed on North Korea over its defiance of an international ban on missile tests caused the countryâ€™s international commerce to shrink 9.7 percent last year, according to Seoul-based trade agency, Kotra. North Korea doesnâ€™t release its own trade figures.
â€œWe have made clear that there is a path open to the DPRK to achieve the security and international respect it seeks,â€ Clinton said, using the initials of the formal name for North Korea. â€œIf North Korea chooses that path, sanctions will be lifted, energy and other economic assistance will be provided, its relationship with the U.S. will be normalized.â€
Further Punishment
Continued threats against South Korea and military provocation would only lead to further punishment for the North Korean regime, Clinton said.
The sinking of the Cheonan has prompted the U.S. and South Korea to showcase their military and political alliance. The two countries yesterday said they will conduct joint naval and air exercises off South Koreaâ€™s east coast next week.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were among senior defense officials who were also in South Korea for what Clinton described as â€œa real show of solidarityâ€ and to mark the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean war.
The 97,000-ton aircraft carrier USS George Washington and three of destroyers arrived in the country today.
In a joint statement after the talks, the U.S. and South Korea urged North Korea to acknowledge that it was behind the attack. The North has said that the evidence of its involvement in the sinking was cooked up as an excuse for the U.S. to wage a â€œwar of aggression.â€
Containing China
The U.S. drills mask a hidden aim to â€œpressurize and contain other big powers by force of arms in the region,â€ the state-run Korea Central News Agency said today.
China, North Koreaâ€™s biggest economic partner, said it is â€œfirmly opposedâ€ to foreign military activities off its coastal water that affect the nationâ€™s security interests, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website today.
China has refused to join in international condemnation of North Korea, saying that it has no independent evidence of the Northâ€™s role in the ship sinking.
In addition to the U.S., North Korea and China, foreign ministers from South Korea, Japan and Russia will also be in the Vietnamese capital tomorrow to attend Asiaâ€™s biggest security forum. Those countries form the so-called six-party talks aimed at ending North Koreaâ€™s nuclear weapons program.
Southeast Asian countries will push North Korea to rejoin the talks, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said. This weekâ€™s meeting of 26 countries and the European Union will be the first to bring together senior envoys from all the six- party participants since the Cheonan sinking.
Asean Seeks Role
â€œThe meeting later this week can provide the necessary political ambiance for things to happen,â€ Natalegawa said in an interview in Hanoi late yesterday. â€œWe must ensure that we do not allow the situation to regress and develop in such a way that there could be a danger to the peace and stability of northeast Asia.â€
Clinton and Gates made an unprecedented joint trip to the armed border dividing the Korean peninsula earlier today, before meeting their counterparts in Seoul this afternoon.
Clinton said that as she looked across the line that divided North from South â€œit struck me that although it may be a thin line, these two countries are worlds apart.â€
In the South, there are leaders of the country â€œwho care about its people,â€ she said. â€œThe North has not only stagnated in isolation but the people of the North have suffered for so many years.â€