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China-Japan-Koreas | ||||
U.S. to impose financial sanctions on N.Korea: report | ||||
2009-06-06 | ||||
"The U.S. delegation ... explained when visiting President Lee Myung-bak and others Washington's own sanctions against the North centered around financial sanctions," the paper quoted a presidential Blue House official as saying. North Korea has raised regional tensions since it fired a long-range rocket over Japan in April, and on Thursday the hermit state put two female U.S. journalists on trial for illegally entering its territory with "hostile intent." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she hoped the trial would result in their speedy release and confirmed the United States had explored sending a special representative to Pyongyang to negotiate for the journalist's freedom. "The trial which is going on right now we consider to be a step toward the release and the return home of these two young women," she told reporters in Washington. Clinton did not discuss any bilateral sanctions the United States was considering but made clear Washington wanted the "strongest possible" resolution to emerge from negotiations at the United Nations to punish the North for its recent actions. "If there are effective sanctions that we believe can be imposed -- an arms embargo, and other steps that need to be taken -- we need to see real results," she added. U.N. diplomats said negotiations among the five permanent Security Council members and Japan had yet to produce a deal on a sanctions resolution. One diplomat said the latest draft resolution called for a "moderate" tightening of sanctions imposed on Pyongyang in 2006 after its first nuclear test.
"The steps we've taken in the past ... in the banking sector, you know, certainly did get North Korea's attention previously and if we find ways to do that, we will do so," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters.
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Posted by:Steve White |