Tag Archives: Sanctions

Canada to impose sanctions on Venezuela’s Maduro and top officials

FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during his weekly broadcast "Los Domingos con Maduro" (The Sundays with Maduro) in Caracas, Venezuela September 17, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will impose targeted sanctions against 40 Venezuelan senior officials, including President Nicolás Maduro, to punish them for “anti-democratic behavior,” the foreign ministry said on Friday.

Canada’s move, which followed a similar decision by the United States, came after months of protests against Maduro’s government in which at least 125 people have been killed. Critics say he has plunged the nation into its worst-ever economic crisis and brought it to the brink of dictatorship.

“Canada will not stand by silently as the government of Venezuela robs its people of their fundamental democratic rights,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement.

The measures include freezing the assets of the officials and banning Canadians from having any dealings with them.

The actions were “in response to the government of Venezuela’s deepening descent into dictatorship,” Canada said.

There was no immediate reaction from Caracas, where the government established a pro-Maduro legislative superbody that has overruled the country’s opposition-led Congress.

Maduro has said he faces an armed insurrection designed to end socialism in Latin America and let a U.S.-backed business elite get its hands on the OPEC nation’s crude reserves.

The United States imposed sanctions on Maduro in late July and has also targeted around 30 other officials.

The Canadian measures name Maduro, Vice President Tareck El Aissami and 38 other people, including the ministers of defense and the interior as well as several Supreme Court judges.

Canada is a member of the 12-nation Lima Group, which is trying to address the Venezuelan crisis. A government official said Freeland wanted to host a meeting of the group within the next 60 days.

Cyndee Todgham Cherniak, a trade sanctions expert at Toronto law firm LexSage, said although limited in scope, the Canadian measures were symbolic.

“When you join other countries … it makes the message louder,” she said by phone.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he believed there was a chance for a political solution.

“This is a situation that is obviously untenable. The violence … needs to end and we are looking to be helpful,” he told reporters at the United Nations.

Experts say individual measures have had little or no impact on Maduro’s policies and that broader oil-sector and financial sanctions may be the only way to make the Venezuelan government feel economic pain.

U.S. President Donald Trump last month signed an executive order that prohibits dealings in new debt from the Venezuelan government or its state oil company.

Earlier this month, Spain said it wanted the European Union to adopt restrictive measures against members of the Venezuelan government.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Jonathan Oatis)

Turkey, Iran, Iraq consider counter-measures over Kurdish referendum

Iraqi people visit Bekhal Waterfall in Erbil, Iraq September 21, 2017.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey, Iran and Iraq have agreed to consider counter-measures against Kurdish northern Iraq over a planned independence referendum, Turkey’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the three countries voiced concerns that the referendum would endanger the gains Iraq has made against Islamic State, and reiterated their fears over the potential for new conflicts in the region.

“In the meeting, the three ministers emphasized that the referendum will not be beneficial for the Kurds and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), and agreed, in this regard, to consider taking counter-measures in coordination,” the statement said.

The statement gave no details on the possible measures but said the ministers, who were in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly, called on the international community to intervene.

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to impose sanctions against Kurdish northern Iraq. Turkish troops are also carrying out military exercises near the border.

The central government in Baghdad, Iraq’s neighbors and Western powers fear the vote could divide the country and spark a wider regional conflict, after Arabs and Kurds cooperated to dislodge Islamic State from its stronghold in Mosul.

The statement said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and their Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari expressed concerns that conflicts surfacing as a result of the referendum would “prove difficult to contain”.

But the Kurds say they are determined to go ahead with the vote, which, though non-binding, could trigger the process of separation in a country already divided along sectarian and ethnic lines.

The three ministers also voiced their “strong commitment” to maintain Iraq’s territorial and political unity, the foreign ministry’s statement said.

Turkey, which has pulled forward a cabinet meeting and national security council session to Friday over the referendum, will also convene parliament for an extraordinary meeting on Saturday, the chairman of the ruling AK Party’s parliamentary group said on Thursday.

 

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Tulay Karadeniz; Editing by Dominic Evans)

 

Exclusive: From Russia with fuel – North Korean ships may be undermining sanctions

Exclusive: From Russia with fuel - North Korean ships may be undermining sanctions

By Polina Nikolskaya

MOSCOW (Reuters) – At least eight North Korean ships that left Russia with a cargo of fuel this year headed for their homeland despite declaring other destinations, a ploy that U.S. officials say is often used to undermine sanctions.

Reuters has no evidence of wrongdoing by the vessels, whose movements were recorded in Reuters ship-tracking data. Changing a ship’s destination once underway is not forbidden and it is unclear whether any of the ships unloaded fuel in North Korea.

But U.S. officials say that changing destination mid-voyage is a hallmark of North Korean state tactics to circumvent the international trade sanctions imposed over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.

Changing course and the complex chain of different firms –many offshore — involved in shipments can complicate efforts to check how much fuel is supplied to North Korea and monitor compliance with a cap on fuel imports under U.N. sanctions.

“As part of North Korea’s efforts to acquire revenue, the regime uses shipping networks to import and export goods,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Marshall S. Billingslea told the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee this month.

“North Korea employs deceptive practices to conceal the true origins of these goods. Pyongyang has been found to routinely falsify a vessel’s identity and documentation.”

VOYAGE OF THE MA DU SAN

The eight vessels identified in the tracking data set sail from the Far Eastern Russian port of Vladivostok or nearby Nakhodka and registered China or South Korea as their destination with the Information System for State Port Control.

After leaving Russia, they were next recorded off the North Korean ports of Kimchaek, Chongjin, Hungnam or Najin. None went on to China and most went back to Russia.

All had a cargo of diesel, a source at the company that services vessels in Vladivostok said. Their cargo capacity ranged from 500 tonnes to 2,000 tonnes.

One of the vessels was the Ma Du San, owned by North Korea’s Korea Kyongun Shipping Co. It took on a cargo of 545 tonnes of marine fuel at Vladivostok’s Pervaya Rechka terminal, owned by Russia’s Independent Petroleum company (IPC).

Reuters obtained a bill of lading — a receipt for goods issued when a ship loads up — dated May 19 showing the Ma Du San’s cargo came from Khabarovskiy NPZ, a refinery owned by IPC.

The ship set sail on May 20. Documents filed with Russia’s Information System for State Port Control stated its next destination as the Chinese port of Zhanjiang and the bill of lading showed it as Busan in South Korea.

The Ma Du San’s next recorded location after Vladivostok was inside the perimeter of the port of Kimchaek — all the other ships were tracked only in the vicinity of ports. North Korean ships intermittently turn off their transponders, and satellites cannot track them at such times, U.S. officials say.

Allegations outlined in two U.S. Treasury Department sanctions orders and a legal complaint filed by the U.S. government match the information Reuters obtained on the Ma Du San though the U.S. documents do not name the vessel involved.

SANCTIONS BLACKLIST

On June 1, the U.S. Treasury Department included IPC on its sanctions blacklist, saying it provided oil to North Korea and may have been involved in circumventing sanctions.

On Aug. 22, the U.S. government sanctioned two more companies, both registered in Singapore — Transatlantic Partners and Velmur Management Pte. Ltd.

The legal complaint, also filed on Aug. 22, accused the two firms of money laundering on behalf of sanctioned North Korean banks seeking to buy petroleum products, citing a bill of lading for May 19 for a cargo of diesel sold by IPC to Velmur and loaded in Vladivostok — the same date as the bill of lading for the Ma Du San.

Andrey Serbin, who represents Transatlantic Partners, said the firm had not received payments from a sanctions-hit bank and that ownership of the fuel changed after it was loaded.

“We sold the fuel to a Chinese company,” Serbin, who has been blacklisted by the U.S. government for “operating in the energy industry in the North Korean economy” and working to purchase fuel for delivery to North Korea, said of several shipments where the company acted as middleman.

“There’s no way we can control them (the goods),” he said.

Serbin did not identify the vessels Transatlantic Partners loaded fuel on to, but a source in a company that services ships in Vladivostok said the Ma Du San was among them.

The bill of lading named the recipient of the Ma Du San’s cargo as a company called LLC Sky Shipping Limited. Reuters was unable to find any record of such a firm.

Velmur said it could not have known where the cargo would end up and did not knowingly help anyone dodge sanctions.

IPC did not respond to a request for comment. Its parent company, Bermuda-registered Alliance Oil Company Ltd., denied having any contractual relations with North Korean companies when U.S. sanctions were imposed on IPC.

The U.S. Treasury and State departments declined to answer questions about Reuters’ findings.

Russia’s foreign ministry did not respond to questions about fuel exports to North Korea but has said Russia complies with the sanctions. Russia’s customs service said it could not provide information about movement of goods across borders.

Since the U.S. sanctions were imposed on IPC, all North Korean-flagged vessels that had been in Vladivostok port have left, according to the tracking data.

They departed with no cargo, an employee with a shipping agent in Vladivostok said. This is confirmed by documents seen by Reuters.

Russian supplies of oil and oil products to North Korea are much smaller than volumes shipped by China, Pyongyang’s only major ally. Beijing has acted to reduce the flows, but Russia’s trade in all goods with North Korea more than doubled in the first quarter of 2017 to $31.4 million.

Moscow’s trade with Pyongyang is under closer scrutiny following a series of missile launches by North Korea and a test involving what it said was a hydrogen bomb.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON, Chen Aizhu in BEIJING, James Pearson in SEOUL, Katya Golubkova, Gleb Stolyarov, Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova in MOSCOW; Editing by Christian Lowe and Timothy Heritage)

Venezuela suspends dollar auctions, blames U.S. sanctions

A woman changes dollars for bolivars at a money exchange in Caracas, Febreuary 24, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela on Wednesday temporarily suspended the sale of U.S. dollars through its Dicom auction system, following an announcement last week that it was moving away from the greenback in response to U.S. sanctions.

The United States in August prohibited dealings in new debt from Venezuela and state oil company PDVSA in response to the creation of a new legislative superbody that critics call the consolidation of a dictatorship.

President Nicolas Maduro last week said the crisis-stricken OPEC country would create a basket of currencies to “free” Venezuela from the dollar, using the Dicom auction system.

Upcoming auctions are deferred until “the necessary adjustments are made to our system to incorporate other currencies” and to resolve problems associated with its correspondent bank, Dicom said via its Twitter account.

Dicom as of August was auctioning dollars for 3,300 bolivars. The system serves as a complement to the country’s currency control system that provides greenbacks at 10 bolivars for essential items such as food and medicine.

Dollars on the black market now fetch 22,431 bolivars, according to website DolarToday.com, which is the principal for the black market rate.

Dicom has auctioned only $72 million since it began operations three months ago. Business leaders say this is a fraction of what companies need to pay to import goods, leaving them reliant on the black market.

Economists say the currency controls are the primary driver of the country’s economic dysfunction, which includes triple-digit inflation and chronic product shortages.

Maduro says the country is victim of an “economic war” led by political adversaries with the help of Washington.

(Reporting by Corina Pons and Deisy Buitrago writing by Brian Ellsworth; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

North Korea threatens to ‘sink’ Japan, reduce U.S. to ‘ashes and darkness’

North Korea threatens to 'sink' Japan, reduce U.S. to 'ashes and darkness'

By Jack Kim and Kiyoshi Takenaka

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – A North Korean state agency threatened on Thursday to use nuclear weapons to “sink” Japan and reduce the United States to “ashes and darkness” for supporting a U.N. Security Council resolution and sanctions over its latest nuclear test.

The Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, which handles the North’s external ties and propaganda, also called for the breakup of the Security Council, which it called “a tool of evil” made up of “money-bribed” countries that move at the order of the United States.

“The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche. Japan is no longer needed to exist near us,” the committee said in a statement carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency.

Juche is the North’s ruling ideology that mixes Marxism and an extreme form of go-it-alone nationalism preached by state founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong Un.

Regional tension has risen markedly since the reclusive North conducted its sixth, and by far its most powerful, nuclear test on Sept. 3, following a series of missile tests, including one that flew over Japan.

The 15-member Security Council voted unanimously on a U.S.-drafted resolution and a new round of sanctions on Monday in response, banning North Korea’s textile exports that are the second largest only to coal and mineral, and capping fuel supplies.

The North reacted to the latest action by the Security Council, which had the backing of veto-holding China and Russia, by reiterating threats to destroy the United States, Japan and South Korea.

“Let’s reduce the U.S. mainland into ashes and darkness. Let’s vent our spite with mobilization of all retaliation means which have been prepared till now,” the statement said.

Japan’s Nikkei stock index and dollar/yen currency pared gains, although traders said that was more because of several Chinese economic indicators released on Thursday rather than a reaction to the North’s latest statement.

South Korea’s won also edged down around the same time over domestic financial concerns.

Despite the North’s threats, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he was against having nuclear weapons in his country, either by developing its own arsenal or bringing back U.S. tactical nuclear weapons that were withdrawn in the early 1990s.

“To respond to North Korea by having our own nuclear weapons will not maintain peace on the Korean peninsula and could lead to a nuclear arms race in northeast Asia,” Moon said in an interview with CNN.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry also said it planned to provide $8 million through the U.N. World Food Programme and UNICEF to help infants and pregnant women in the North.

The move marks Seoul’s first humanitarian assistance for the North since its fourth nuclear test in January 2016 and is based on a longstanding policy of separating humanitarian aid from politics, the ministry said.

“DANCING TO THE TUNE”

The North’s latest threats also singled out Japan for “dancing to the tune” of the United States, saying it should never be pardoned for not offering a sincere apology for its “never-to-be-condoned crimes against our people”, an apparent reference to Japan’s wartime aggression.

It also referred to South Korea as “traitors and dogs” of the United States.

Japan criticized the North’s statement harshly.

“This announcement is extremely provocative and egregious. It is something that markedly heightens regional tension and is absolutely unacceptable,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, visiting India, called for strict enforcement of the U.N. resolution, saying the world must force a change.

The 15-member Security Council voted unanimously on a U.S.-drafted resolution and a new round of sanctions against North Korea on Monday in response to its latest and most powerful test, banning North Korea’s textile exports that are the second largest only to coal and mineral, and capping fuel supplies.

North Korea had already rejected the Security Council resolution, vowing to press ahead with its nuclear and missile programs.

A tougher initial U.S. draft of Monday’s resolution was weakened to win the support of China, the North’s lone major ally, and Russia. Significantly, it stopped short of imposing a full embargo on oil exports to North Korea, most of which come from China.

The latest sanctions also make it illegal for foreign firms to form commercial joint ventures with North Korean entities.

U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed that North Korea will never be allowed to threaten the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile, but has also asked China to do more to rein in its neighbor. China in turn favors an international response to the problem.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the international community had reached a “high consensus” on trying to realize a peaceful solution.

“We urge the relevant directly involved parties to seize the opportunity and have the political nerve to make the correct political choice as soon as possible,” Hua told a regular press briefing.

The North accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies.

The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.

(Additional reporting by Christian Shepherd in Beijing, Hyonhee Shin in Seoul, Sanjeev Miglani in New Delhi and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Paul Tait and Nick Macfie)

France says Venezuela talks to take place, warns of sanctions

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a meeting with ministers at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela September 12, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

PARIS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government and opposition will hold a round of talks in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, warning Caracas that it risked EU sanctions if it failed to engage in negotiations.

Venezuela was convulsed for months by demonstrations against leftist President Nicolas Maduro, accused by critics of knocking the oil-rich country into its worst-ever economic crisis and bringing it to the brink of dictatorship.

“I was happy to learn that dialogue with the opposition would restart tomorrow in the Dominican Republic,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement after meeting his Venezuelan counterpart, Jorge Arreaza Montserrat, in Paris.

Venezuela’s Democratic Unity Coalition said it would send a delegation to meet with Dominican President Danilo Medina to discuss the conditions under which dialogue could be held, but denied that any talks as such had begun.

“The invitation by (Medina) does NOT represent the start of a formal dialogue with the government,” the coalition said in a statement. “To begin serious negotiations, we demand immediate concrete actions that show true willingness to solve problems rather than to buy time.”

The statement reiterated long standing opposition demands including the release of political prisoners, respect for the opposition-run congress and measures to ease a crippling economic crisis.

Le Drian said Wednesday’s meeting would involve Medina and former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his full support for the talks.

“The Secretary-General encourages the Venezuelan political actors to seize this opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to address the country’s challenges through mediation and peaceful means,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Maduro routinely calls for dialogue with the opposition, but his adversaries see dialogue as a stalling mechanism that burnishes the government’s image without producing concrete results.

In a televised broadcast on Tuesday evening, he voiced renewed support for dialogue and said he was sending Socialist Party heavyweight Jorge Rodriguez to represent the government in the Dominican Republic.

A dialogue process brokered by Zapatero and backed by the Vatican in 2016 did little to advance opposition demands.

Many Maduro critics believe opposition leaders were duped in that dialogue process, and have grown suspicious of Zapatero as an intermediary.

Like fellow-EU member Spain a few days earlier, Le Drian also warned Arreaza that if the situation continued there would be consequences.

“I reminded him of the risk of European sanctions and the need to rapidly see evidence from Venezuela that it is ready to relaunch negotiations with the opposition and engage in a sincere and credible process,” he said.

 

(Reporting by John Irish in Paris and Diego Ore and Brian Ellsworth in Caracas; Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Writing by Brian Love and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Leigh Thomas and Sandra Maler)

 

North Korea defiant over U.N. sanctions as Trump says tougher steps needed

North Korea defiant over U.N. sanctions as Trump says tougher steps needed

By Jack Kim and Roberta Rampton

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – North Korea showed trademark defiance on Wednesday over new U.N. sanctions imposed after its sixth and largest nuclear test, vowing to redouble efforts to fight off what it said was the threat of a U.S. invasion.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday’s sanctions, unanimously agreed on Monday by the 15-member U.N. Security Council, were just a small step towards what is ultimately needed to rein in Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

The North’s Foreign Ministry said the resolutions were an infringement on its legitimate right to self-defense and aimed at “completely suffocating its state and people through full-scale economic blockade”.

“The DPRK will redouble the efforts to increase its strength to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and right to existence and to preserve peace and security of the region by establishing the practical equilibrium with the U.S.,” it said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

The statement echoed comments on Tuesday by the North’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Han Tae Song, who said Pyongyang was “ready to use a form of ultimate means”.

“The forthcoming measures … will make the U.S. suffer the greatest pain it ever experienced in its history,” Han said.

The North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper also accused South Korea of being Washington’s “puppet”, criticizing Seoul’s agreement with the United States to amend an existing bilateral guideline that will now allow the South to use unlimited warhead payloads on its missiles.

The U.N. Security Council agreed to boost sanctions on North Korea, banning its textile exports and capping fuel supplies, and making it illegal for foreign firms to form commercial joint ventures with North Korean entities.

The U.N. resolution was triggered by North Korea’s test of what it said was a hydrogen bomb.

Damage to mountainous terrain at the North’s nuclear test site in Punggye-ri seen in satellite imagery taken after the latest test was more extensive than anything seen after the five previous tests, the Washington-based 38 North project said.

There was also activity at another location in the Mount Mantap site involving large vehicles and mining equipment that suggests “onsite work could now be changing focus to further prepare those other portals for future underground nuclear testing”, said 38 North, which monitors North Korea.

The North accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war, of continual plans for invasion.

North Korea has also tested a missile capable of reaching the United States, but experts say it is likely to be at least a year before it can field an operational nuclear missile that could threaten the U.S. mainland.

ANOTHER SMALL STEP

Trump has vowed not to allow that to happen.

A tougher initial U.S. draft resolution was weakened to win the support of China and Russia, both of which hold U.N. veto power. Significantly, it stopped short of imposing a full embargo on oil exports to North Korea, most of which come from China.

“We think it’s just another very small step, not a big deal,” Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

“I don’t know if it has any impact, but certainly it was nice to get a 15-to-nothing vote, but those sanctions are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned China, North Korea’s main ally and trading partner, that Washington would “put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the U.S. and international dollar system” if it did not follow through on the new measures.

Another senior administration official told Reuters any such “secondary sanctions” on Chinese banks and other companies were on hold for now to give China time to show it was prepared to fully enforce the latest and previous rounds of sanctions.

Washington so far has mostly held off on new sanctions against Chinese banks and other companies doing business with North Korea, given fears of retaliation by Beijing and possibly far-reaching effects on the world economy.

Russia and China both say they respect U.N. sanctions and have called on the United States to return to negotiations with North Korea. They have also said they could kick-start talks with North Korea if the United States halts joint military drills with South Korea, which Washington has rejected.

An article carried on the front page of the People’s Daily, the official paper of China’s ruling Communist Party, said the Korean peninsula had reached the “moment of choice” where the United States and North Korea must break from the cycle of nuclear tests and sanctions.

“All parties involved in the peninsula have their own strategic considerations, but not being able to see beyond this vicious cycle is not in anyone’s interest,” the article said.

Asked about the North Korean and U.S. rhetoric, China’s foreign ministry reiterated a call for restraint and a return to dialogue.

“We hope all relevant parties can be rational and maintain restraint and not take actions that could further increase tensions on the peninsula,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular briefing.

In another show of force, South Korea’s Air Force conducted its first live-fire exercise of Taurus long-range, air-to-surface missiles on Tuesday, the defense ministry said, as practice for precision bombing North Korean facilities.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the new sanctions could eventually starve North Korea of an additional $500 million or more in annual revenue.

The United States has said that a previous round of sanctions agreed in August was aimed at cutting North Korea’s $3 billion in exports by a third.

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim and Yuna Park in SEOUL, Michael Martina and Christian Shepherd in BEIJING, and Roberta Rampton and David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Paul Tait and Nick Macfie)

North Korea sanctions ‘nothing compared to what will have to happen’: Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump waits to greet Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak at the White House in Washington, U.S. September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the latest U.N. sanctions on North Korea were only a very small step and nothing compared to what would have to happen to deal with the country’s nuclear program.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted to boost sanctions on North Korea on Monday, with its profitable textile exports now banned and fuel supplies capped, prompting a traditionally defiant threat of retaliation against the United States.

Monday’s decision, triggered by the North’s sixth and largest nuclear test this month, was the ninth such resolution unanimously adopted by the 15-member Security Council since 2006 over North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

A tougher initial U.S. draft was weakened to win the support of China, Pyongyang’s main ally and trading partner, and Russia, both of which hold veto power in the council. Significantly, it stopped short of imposing a full embargo on oil exports to North Korea, most of which come from China.

Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak that he was pleased Malaysia no longer did business with North Korea, before adding that he had just discussed the U.N. vote with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“We think it’s just another very small step, not a big deal. … I don’t know if it has any impact, but certainly it was nice to get a 15-to-nothing vote.

“But those sanctions are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen,” he said without elaborating. Trump has vowed not to allow North Korea to possess a nuclear missile capable of hitting the United States.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a conference earlier on Tuesday that if China did not follow through on the new sanctions, “we will put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the U.S. and international dollar system.”

Washington so far has mostly held off on new sanctions against Chinese banks and other companies doing business with North Korea, given fears of retaliation by Beijing and possibly far-reaching effects on the world economy.

CHINA AND NORTH KOREA

Trump is likely to make a stop in China in November during his first official visit to Asia and Tillerson was due to hold talks later on Tuesday with China’s most senior diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, at which details of the trip are expected to be discussed, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. president has wavered between criticizing China for not doing enough on North Korea to heaping personal praise on the Chinese President Xi Jinping.

North Korea said its Sept. 3 test was of an advanced hydrogen bomb and was its most powerful by far.

Its ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Han Tae Song, rejected the resolution as “illegal and unlawful” and said Washington was “fired up for political, economic, and military confrontation.”

North Korea is “ready to use a form of ultimate means,” Han said. “The forthcoming measures … will make the U.S. suffer the greatest pain it ever experienced in its history.”

He did not elaborate, but North Korea frequently vows to destroy the United States.

The latest U.N. resolution also calls on countries to inspect vessels on the high seas, with the consent of the flag state, if they have reasonable grounds to believe ships are carrying prohibited cargo to North Korea.

It also bans joint ventures with North Korean entities, except for nonprofit public utility infrastructure projects, and prohibits countries from bringing in new North Korean workers.

On Tuesday, frustrated U.S. lawmakers called on Tuesday for a “supercharged” response to North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, saying Washington should act alone if necessary to stiffen sanctions on companies from China and any country doing business with Pyongyang. [nL2N1LT10K}

Saying “time is running out,” Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said the United States should give Chinese banks and companies “a choice between doing business with North Korea or the United States.”

Assistant Treasury Secretary Marshall Billingslea acknowledged at a House hearing that he had not seen sufficient evidence past sanctions were effective, but defended the administration’s strategy.

He called on anyone aware of efforts to enable North Korean trade to come forward before getting caught. “We are closing in on North Korea’s trade representatives,” he said.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the United States was “not looking for war” and if North Korea agreed to stop its nuclear program, it could “reclaim its future.”

“If North Korea continues its dangerous path, we will continue with further pressure,” said Haley, who credited a “strong relationship” between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for the resolution.

She said the sanctions could eventually starve North Korea of an additional $500 million or more in annual revenue. The United States has said that a previous rounds of sanctions agreed in August were aimed at cutting North Korea’s $3 billion in exports by a third.

China’s official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that the Trump administration was making a mistake by rejecting diplomatic engagement with North Korea.

“The U.S. needs to switch from isolation to communication in order to end an ‘endless loop’ on the Korean peninsula, where “nuclear and missile tests trigger tougher sanctions and tougher sanctions invite further tests,” it said.

(Restores dropped word “to” in first paragraph.)

(Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Christine Kim in Seoul, David Lawder in Washington, Philip Wen in Beijing, Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo, David Brunnstrom in Washington and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Nick Macfie and Jonathan Oatis)

U.N. Security Council steps up sanctions on defiant North Korea

U.N. Security Council steps up sanctions on defiant North Korea

By Michelle Nichols and Jack Kim

UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted to step up sanctions on North Korea, with its profitable textile exports now banned and fuel supplies capped, prompting a traditionally defiant threat of retaliation against the United States.

Monday’s decision, triggered by the North’s sixth and largest nuclear test this month, was the ninth such resolution unanimously adopted by the 15-member Security Council since 2006 over North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Japan and South Korea said after the passage of the U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution they were prepared to apply more pressure if North Korea refused to end its aggressive development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

A tougher initial U.S. draft was weakened to win the support of China, Pyongyang’s main ally and trading partner, and Russia, both of which hold veto power in the council.

“We don’t take pleasure in further strengthening sanctions today. We are not looking for war,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the council after the vote. “The North Korean regime has not yet passed the point of no return.

“If it agrees to stop its nuclear program, it can reclaim its future … If North Korea continues its dangerous path, we will continue with further pressure,” said Haley, who credited a “strong relationship” between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for the successful resolution negotiations.

North Korea’s ambassador, Han Tae Song, told the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Tuesday the United States was “fired up for political, economic, and military confrontation”.

The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States, which it accuses of continual preparation for invasion.

“My delegation condemns in the strongest terms, and categorically rejects, the latest illegal and unlawful U.N. Security Council resolution,” he said.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was “ready to use a form of ultimate means”, Han said, without elaborating.

“The forthcoming measures by DPRK will make the U.S. suffer the greatest pain it ever experienced in its history.”

U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood took the floor to say the Security Council resolution “frankly sent a very clear and unambiguous message to the regime that the international community is tired, is no longer willing to put up with provocative behavior from this regime”.

U.N. member states are now required to halt imports of textiles from North Korea, its second largest export after coal and other minerals in 2016 that totaled $752 million and accounted for a quarter of its income from trade, according to South Korean data. Nearly 80 percent went to China.

“This resolution also puts an end to the regime making money from the 93,000 North Korean citizens it sends overseas to work and heavily taxes,” Haley said.

“This ban will eventually starve the regime of an additional $500 million or more in annual revenues,” she said.

RESUME DIALOGUE

South Korea’s presidential Blue House said the only way for Pyongyang to end diplomatic isolation and free itself of economic pressure was to end its nuclear program and resume dialogue.

“North Korea needs to realize that a reckless challenge against international peace will only bring about even stronger international sanctions against it,” the Blue House said.

However, China’s official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that the Trump administration was making a mistake by rejecting diplomatic engagement with the North.

“The U.S. needs to switch from isolation to communication in order to end an ‘endless loop’ on the Korean peninsula, where “nuclear and missile tests trigger tougher sanctions and tougher sanctions invite further tests,” Xinhua said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quickly welcomed the resolution and said after the vote it was important to change North Korea’s policy by stepping up pressure.

The resolution imposes a ban on condensates and natural gas liquids, a cap of 2 million barrels a year on refined petroleum products, and a cap on crude oil exports to North Korea at current levels. China supplies most of North Korea’s crude.

A U.S. official, familiar with the council negotiations and speaking on condition of anonymity, said North Korea imported about 4.5 million barrels of refined petroleum products annually and 4 million barrels of crude oil.

Chinese officials have privately expressed fears that an oil embargo could risk causing massive instability in their neighbor. Russia and China have also expressed concern about the humanitarian impact of stiffer sanctions on North Korea.

Haley said the resolution aimed to hit “North Korea’s ability to fuel and fund its weapons program”. Trump has vowed not to allow North Korea to develop a nuclear missile capable of hitting the mainland United States.

South Korean officials said after the North’s sixth nuclear test that Pyongyang could soon launch another intercontinental ballistic missile in defiance of international pressure. North Korea said its Sept. 3 test was of an advanced hydrogen bomb and was its most powerful by far.

The latest resolution contained new political language urging “further work to reduce tensions, so as to advance the prospects for a comprehensive settlement”.

The resolution also calls on countries to inspect vessels on the high seas, with the consent of the flag state, if they have reasonable grounds to believe the ships are carrying prohibited cargo.

It also bans joint ventures with North Korean entities, except for non-profit public utility infrastructure projects.

(Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Christine Kim in Seoul, Philip Wen in Beijing, Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo, David Brunnstrom in Washington and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Nick Macfie)

U.N. Security Council to vote Monday on weakened North Korea sanctions

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claps during a celebration for nuclear scientists and engineers who contributed to a hydrogen bomb test, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on September 10, 2017.

By Michelle Nichols and Jack Kim

UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council is set to vote on Monday on a watered-down U.S.-drafted resolution to impose new sanctions on North Korea over its latest nuclear test, diplomats said, but it was unclear whether China and Russia would support it.

North Korea warned the United States that it would pay a “due price” for spearheading efforts for fresh sanctions for this month’s nuclear test, which followed a series of test missile launches, all in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

A U.S.-drafted resolution originally calling for an oil embargo on the North, a halt to its key exports of textiles and subjecting leader Kim Jong Un to a financial and travel ban have been weakened, apparently to placate Russia and China which both have veto powers, diplomats said.

It no longer proposes blacklisting Kim and relaxes sanctions earlier proposed on oil and gas, a draft reviewed by Reuters shows. It still proposes a ban on textile exports.

North Korea was condemned globally for conducting its sixth nuclear test on Sept 3, which it said was of an advanced hydrogen bomb. NATO head Jens Stoltenberg said at the weekend that North Korea’s “reckless behavior”, pursuing nuclear and missile programs, was a global threat and required a global response.

The tensions have weighed on global markets, but on Monday there was some relief among investors that North Korea did not conduct a further missile test this weekend when it celebrated its founding anniversary.

Still, North Korea denounced efforts by Washington to impose new U.N.-backed sanctions against the country. The North’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said the United States was “going frantic” to manipulate the Security Council over Pyongyang’s nuclear test, which it said was part of “legitimate self-defensive measures.”

“In case the U.S. eventually does rig up the illegal and unlawful ‘resolution’ on harsher sanctions, the DPRK shall make absolutely sure that the U.S. pays due price,” the spokesman said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

DPRK stands for the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The world will witness how the DPRK tames the U.S. gangsters by taking a series of actions tougher than they have ever envisaged,” the unnamed spokesman said.

“The DPRK has developed and perfected the super-powerful thermo-nuclear weapon as a means to deter the ever-increasing hostile moves and nuclear threat of the U.S. and defuse the danger of nuclear war looming over the Korean peninsula and the region.”

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said last week during a visit to Russia that shutting off North Korea’s supply of oil was inevitable this time to bring Pyongyang to talks and he called for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s support.

Putin has remained firm however that such sanctions on oil would have negative humanitarian effects on North Koreans.

China, the North’s lone major ally, may be most critical though in deciding if oil sanctions go ahead because it controls an oil pipeline that industry sources say provides about 520,000 tonnes of crude a year to the North.

A Security Council resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by permanent members the United States, Britain, France, Russia or China to pass.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang stressed the need for consensus and maintaining peace.

“I have said before that China agrees that the U.N. Security Council should make a further response and necessary actions with respect to North Korea’s sixth nuclear test,” he told reporters.

“We hope Security Council members on the basis of sufficient consultations reach consensus and project a united voice. The response and actions the Security Council makes should be conducive to the denuclearization of the peninsula, conducive to safeguarding the peace and stability of the peninsula, and conducive to push forward the use of peaceful and political means to resolve the peninsula nuclear issue.”

 

FALLOUT

The latest draft of the resolution reflects the challenge in imposing tough sanctions on the North by curbing its energy supply and singling out its leader for a financial and travel ban, a symbolic measure at best but one that is certain to rile Pyongyang.

It will also be a disappointment to South Korea, which has sought tough new sanctions that would be harder for Pyongyang to ignore, as it said dialogue remained on the table.

“We have been in consultations that oil has to be part of the final sanctions,” South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told a news conference, saying Pyongyang was on a “reckless path”.

“I do believe that whatever makes it into the final text and is adopted by consensus hopefully will have significant consequences on the economic pressure against North Korea.”

There was no independent verification of the North’s claim to have conducted a hydrogen bomb test, but some experts said there was enough strong evidence to suggest Pyongyang had either developed a hydrogen bomb or was getting close.

KCNA said on Sunday that Kim threw a banquet to celebrate the scientists and top military and party officials who contributed to the nuclear bomb test, topped with an art performance and a photo session with the leader himself.

The standoff is also spilling over into the business relationship between South Korea and China.

South Korea’s Lotte Shopping  is considering selling its supermarkets in China and other options should political tensions between Seoul and Beijing continue next year, an official at the retailer told Reuters.

China has pressured South Korean businesses via boycotts and bans since Seoul decided last year to deploy a U.S.-made missile defense system as a deterrent to North Korea. Beijing says the system’s radar can penetrate far into its territory.

South Korea deployed four additional units of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on Thursday after the North’s latest nuclear test.

The heightened tension could have a substantial impact on South Korea’s economy and could also disrupt trade between the United States and China, ratings agency Fitch said on Monday.

Outright military conflict on the Korean peninsula is unlikely but prolonged tension could undermine business and consumer sentiment, Fitch said.

 

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim and Hyunjoo Jin in SEOUL and Philip Wen in BEIJING; Editing by Neil Fullick and Nick Macfie)