The US on Tuesday announced sanctions on two North Korean officials behind their country’s ballistic missile program, while Russia reiterated an offer to mediate to ease tensions between Washington and Pyongyang.
The new US steps were the latest in a campaign aimed at forcing North Korea — which has defied years of multilateral and bilateral sanctions — to abandon a weapons program aimed at developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the US mainland.
The US Department of the Treasury named the officials as Kim Jong-sik and Ri Pyong-chol.
Kim was reportedly a key figure in North Korea’s efforts to switch its missile program from liquid to solid fuel, while Ri was reported to be a key official in its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) development, it said.
“Treasury is targeting leaders of North Korea’s ballistic missile programs, as part of our maximum pressure campaign to isolate [North Korea] and achieve a fully denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
The move followed new UN sanctions announced on Friday last week in response to North Korea’s Nov. 29 test of an ICBM that Pyongyang said put all the US mainland within range of its nuclear weapons.
Those sanctions sought to further limit North Korea’s access to refined petroleum products and crude oil, and its earnings from workers abroad.
North Korea declared the UN steps to be an act of war and tantamount to a complete economic blockade.
The standoff between the US and North Korea has raised fears of a new conflict on the Korean Peninsula, which has remained in a technical state of war since the 1950 to 1953 Korean War ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.
Washington has said that all options, including military ones, are on the table in dealing with North Korea.
It has said it prefers a diplomatic solution, but added that North Korea has given no indication it is willing to discuss denuclearization.
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