North Korea yesterday warned that the US redeployment of an aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula is causing a “considerably huge negative splash” in regional security, as it defended its missile tests as a “righteous reaction” to intimidating military drills between its rivals.
The North Korean Ministry of Defense statement came a day after the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan began a new round of naval drills with South Korean warships off the peninsula’s east coast, and after the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on people and firms in Asia, including a Taiwanese man, accused of helping North Korea procure fuel in contravention of UN sanctions.
The Reagan and its battle group returned to the area after North Korea fired a powerful missile over Japan earlier this week to protest the carrier group’s previous training with South Korea.
Photo: AP
The Reagan’s redeployment is “an event of considerably huge negative splash to the regional situation,” an unidentified spokesman at the North Korean defense ministry said in remarks carried by state media.
He also called the Reagan’s return “a sort of military bluffing” to issue a warning over North Korea’s “righteous reaction” to “the extremely provocative and threatening joint military drills of the US and South Korea.”
North Korea regards US-South Korean military exercises as an invasion rehearsal and is especially sensitive if such drills involve US strategic assets such as an aircraft carrier.
In the past two weeks, North Korea has fired 10 ballistic missiles into the sea in five launch events, adding to its record-breaking pace of weapons tests this year.
The US Department of the Treasury’s OFAC targeted two people and three firms from Taiwan, Singapore and the Marshall Islands.
The US accused them of moving fuel through an “illicit ship-to-ship transfer” that circumvents UN sanctions restricting the importation of petroleum products and supports the development of North Korea’s weapons programs and military.
The sanctioned companies are the Marshall Islands-based New Eastern Shipping Co, and Singapore-registered Anfasar Trading (S) Pte and Swanseas Port Services Pte. The US also targeted Chen Shih-huan (陳詩煥) of Taiwan and Kwek Kee Seng of Singapore for coordinating the deliveries.
Among other things, the sanctions deny them access to any property or financial assets held in the US and prevent US companies and people from doing business with them.
US Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said that North Korea’s ballistic missile launches “demonstrate a continued disregard for United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
“The United States will continue to enforce multilateral sanctions and pursue the DPRK’s [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] sanctions evasion efforts worldwide, including by designating those who support these activities,” he said.
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