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News > U.S.

North Korea Warns US Sanctions Could Derail Denuclearization

  • North Korea Warns US Sanctions Could Derail Denuclearization

    North Korea Warns US Sanctions Could Derail Denuclearization | Photo: Reuters file

Published 17 December 2018
Opinion

The United States Department of Treasury's sanctions on North Korean figureheads could 'block' denuclearization efforts, says Pyongyang. 

The United States has recently imposed sanctions on senior North Korean regime figures which have prompted the Asian country to decry a “deliberate provocation” which could block denuclearization efforts.

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During the last six months, North Korea and the United States have been holding talks with the purpose of achieving the denuclearization of the Korean nation.

The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, and the President of the United States, Donald Trump, have had a rocky relationship ever since the U.S. leader assumed office in 2016. They have both attacked each other and exchanged pleasantries in the public realm, at different times.

The decision to impose sanctions on the three North Korean figureheads came from the US treasury department.

Pyongyang manifested its reproach to this action saying it could “block the path to denuclearization on the Korean peninsula forever.”

Moreover, the regime stated that if relations are to improve between both nations, then each needs to take gradual measures to promote this process, “We have been proposing that the DPRK-US relations be improved on a step-by-step approach.”

However, there is concern that the opposite is taking place after the department of treasury’s actions, which have been interpreted as “bent on bringing DPRK-US relations back to the status of last year which was marked by exchanges of fire,” the policy research director of the North Korean foreign ministry, stated.

By exchanges of fire, the spokesman refers not to actual direct confrontation but to the series of missile tests conducted by North Korea and the verbal exchanges which took place between both leaders, in the recent past.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was supposed to meet his counterpart Yong-chol to further discuss relations between both countries in November. The meeting did not take place and it has not been rescheduled thus far.

The sanctions on North Korea come at a time when the United States government is holding negotiations with China to end the tariff-war which has been ongoing for several months. The process was put in suspense as the U.S. government orchestrated the detention of Huawei’s CFO on grounds of violating sanctions against Iran through the company’s business dealings.

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