미 재무부, '북한과 불법환적' 대만•홍콩 해운사 제재
Our top story today.
Amid stalled denuclearization talks between Pyeongyang and Washington, the United States has imposed sanctions on several shipping companies for providing oil shipments to North Korea.
Kim Hyesung starts us off.
The Trump administration has slapped sanctions on two Taiwan-based individuals and several shipping companies accused of providing oil shipments to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions.
The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday also classified one vessel as "blocked property" for engaging in ship-to-ship transfers of oil to North Korean vessels.
Washington added that the measures are to enforce existing U.S. and UN sanctions on North Korea and that the shipments are undermining the international pressure campaign to choke Pyeongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The U.S. Treasury's actions come a month after it sanctioned a Vietnam-based North Korean, Kim Su-il, over ties to Pyeongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile program.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday also called out North Korea and other countries for forcing disappearances of individuals viewed as a challenge to their authority in light of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
In a statement, Mike Pompeo said that in North Korea, authorities have made religious practitioners and those accused of political crimes disappear.
The list also included Burma, Syria, Venezuela and Iraq as countries where enforced disappearances have been used against ethnic minorities, members of parliament, the military and civilians... and urged these countries to abandon such practices.
The latest developments come amid stalled talks between North Korea and the U.S.
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.
