WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Friday froze the assets of a bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), further beefing up its financial sanctions against the country.
The latest U.S. sanctions against Pyongyang targeted the Amroggang Development Bank, which was controlled by the DPRK's Tanchon Commercial Bank, an institution blacklisted and sanctioned by Washington.
The Amroggang Development Bank is "a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction," the U.S. Department of Treasury said in a statement.
"As long as North Korea continues to try to evade sanctions and obscure its illicit proliferation transactions, we will take steps to combat that activity and protect the integrity of the international financial system," Stuart Levey, undersecretary of the Treasury Department, said in the statement.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton said on Wednesday that the United States will not have normal ties with the DPRK or relax its sanctions against the country until Pyongyang abandons nuclear arms.
"Current sanctions will not be relaxed until Pyongyang takes verifiable, irreversible steps toward complete denuclearization," Clinton said in a policy address to the United States Institutes of Peace.
DPRK accuses U.S. of obstructing inter-Korean relationship: state media
PYONGYANG, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said the U.S.-South Korean Security Consultative Meeting was "full of the smell of gunpowder," being "ill-intentioned behavior to obstruct the melioration of the inter-Korean relationship," the official newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported Saturday.
It said the DPRK had adopted a series of measures to improve the relationship between the North and South, claiming that "the tense situation on the Korean Peninsula is easing off" due to the DPRK's efforts. Full story
U.S. experts suggest multiple engagement with DPRK
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- The United States should have multiple engagement with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK) rather than continuing its sanctions against the country, said a latest study that was released here on Thursday.
"Sanctions alone cannot provide protection from the threat posed now or in the future by North Korea. Instead, economic engagement starts a process that may lead to significant benefits without enhancing the DPRK's military capabilities or making the U.S. or its allies more vulnerable," said the study by experts from the Asia Society and the University of California. Full story
U.S. to keep sanctions against DPRK until denuclearization: Clinton
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The United States will not have normal ties with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) or relax its sanctions against the country until Pyongyang abandons nuclear arms, Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton said here on Wednesday.
In her policy address to the United States Institutes of Peace, Clinton reiterated the United States' willingness to have face-to-face talks with the DPRK on condition that the talks will lead to Pyongyang's return to the stalled six-party talks. Full story
U.S.-DPRK talks should make way for six-party talks: U.S. says
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- A senior U.S. official said here on Monday that any of U.S. bilateral contacts with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) should lead to the resumption of six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
"We would be prepared for, in the right circumstances at some point, some initial interaction that would lead rapidly to a six-party framework," Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said at the Council on Foreign Relations.Full story
