Asia-Pacific News

US Treasury Dept. imposes sanctions on North Korea to curb military programs

Key Points
  • The U.S. Treasury Department introduced new sanctions Tuesday to curb North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
  • The sanctions target individuals, companies and transportation networks that help Kim Jong-un's regime fund their nuclear program.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) looks at a metal casing at an undisclosed location an an undated picture released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency.
STR | AFP | Getty Images

The U.S. department of Treasury introduced new sanctions Tuesday to curb North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The news follows President Donald Trump's Monday announcement, designating North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism.

The designation "should have happened a long time ago," the president said at the start of a Cabinet meeting Monday.

The move returns North Korea to the list of countries the U.S. views as sponsors of terror. North Korea was removed from that list in 2008, in a bid to save a deal halting its nuclear development program.

"As North Korea continues to threaten international peace and security, we are steadfast in our determination to maximize economic pressure to isolate it from outside sources of trade and revenue while exposing its evasive tactics," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement, detailing the new sanctions.

The new sanctions target transportation networks, as well as companies and individuals with long-standing commercial ties to North Korea, in an attempt to bleed Kim Jong-un's regime of funding for its nuclear program.

"These designations include companies that have engaged in trade with North Korea cumulatively worth hundreds of millions of dollars," Mnuchin said in a statement. "We are also sanctioning the shipping and transportation companies, and their vessels, that facilitate North Korea's trade and its deceptive maneuvers."

The new sanctions target one individual, 13 entities, and 20 vessels identified in the document.