US and South Korean officials held more talks yesterday about tightening the sanctions on North Korea as Pyongyang’s military threatened to hit back at a South Korean naval exercise.
US officials, led by Robert Einhorn, State Department special adviser for non-proliferation and arms control, met senior finance ministry officials.
“The US side briefed us on financial sanctions against the North and Iran and they asked for Seoul’s help,” Kim Ik-ju, director of the ministry’s international finance bureau, told journalists. “US officials spent much of the time explaining about sanctions against Iran.”
Also at the talks was Daniel Glaser, a senior Treasury official overseeing efforts to combat terrorist financing and financial crimes.
During a visit to Seoul last month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced plans to tighten existing sanctions and impose new measures on the North to punish Pyongyang for the alleged sinking of the Cheonan and to pressure it to scrap its nuclear weapons program.
Seoul and Washington accuse Pyongyang of torpedoing the ship in March, with the loss of 46 lives, a charge it vehemently denies. South Korea and its US ally held a major naval and air exercise last week to deter cross-border aggression and Seoul will launch its own five-day anti-submarine drill tomorrow in the Yellow Sea.
The North’s military western command yesterday described the upcoming exercise as a “direct military invasion.”
“In view of the prevailing situation, the [western command] made a decisive resolution to counter the reckless naval firing projected by the group of traitors [South Korea’s government] with strong physical retaliation,” it said.
Pyongyang made similar threats against last week’s joint exercise in the Sea of Japan, which passed without incident.
Einhorn and Glaser on Monday announced plans that could cut off companies and individuals accused of sanctions-busting activities from the international financial system. Einhorn, in an apparent “name and shame” policy, said Washington would blacklist such entities and individuals and block any property or assets they possess in the US.
Kim Yong-hyun of Seoul’s Dongguk University said the new US sanctions would merely have a symbolic effect since China remains reluctant to hit the North hard.
“The US rhetoric sounds harsh, but Washington itself does not want to squeeze the North too hard ... When the dust whipped up by the sinking incident begins to settle in a month or two, the atmosphere will shift toward dialogue,” Kim said, predicting that six-party nuclear disarmament talks could resume in the autumn.
Meanwhile, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun called yesterday for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
“We are pressing for a peace treaty to get rid of the root of constant threats against peace and stability in the region and to ensure permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula,” he said in a speech in Jakarta.
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