Secretary Clinton Announces New Sanctions Against North Korea

Secretary Clinton, left, and Defense Secretary Gates announce sanctions against North Korea outside the Demilitarized Zone on July 21.

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer
July 21, 2010


Washington — The United States will strengthen existing economic sanctions and impose new restrictions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons program and its recent unnecessarily provocative actions, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says.

Clinton said a shift in North Korea’s behavior could improve its security and the international respect it seeks. The North could have a peace treaty, normal relations with the United States and an end to sanctions — if it would cease “its provocative behavior, halt its threat and belligerence toward its neighbors, take irreversible steps to fulfill its denuclearization commitments and comply with international law,” Clinton told reporters.

“If North Korea chooses that path, sanctions will be lifted, energy and other economic assistance will be provided, its relations with the United States will be normalized and the current armistice on the peninsula will be replaced by a permanent peace agreement,” Clinton said at a July 21 press conference in Seoul.

Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates toured the Demilitarized Zone, which has separated North and South Korea since July 1953, when the Korean War ended in a truce. They were in South Korea for talks with Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and National Defense Minister Kim Tae-young in the first “2-plus-2” talks held between U.S. and South Korean ministers.

When President Obama entered office 18 months ago, he offered to hold diplomatic talks with North Korea to encourage North Korean negotiators to resume the Six-Party Talks, which were designed to convince the North to forgo a nuclear weapons and long-range missile development program, Clinton told reporters. The Six-Party Talks are led by China and include Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Russia and the United States.

“Following the attack on the [South Korean naval vessel] Cheonan, I think it’s particularly timely to show our strong support for South Korea, a stalwart ally, and to send a very clear message to North Korea,” Clinton said. The sanctions are specifically designed to “target their leadership, target their assets.”

The new sanctions announced July 21 target the sale or purchase of arms and related materials used to fund North Korea’s nuclear weapons development program and the acquisition of luxury items for the ruling elite. While the specifics of the sanctions are still being worked out, Clinton said they would also target North Korean counterfeiting, money laundering and other financial activities that are used by the regime to raise hard currency to pay off its allies and to maintain control of the isolated communist nation bordered by China, Russia and South Korea.

The visit by Clinton and Gates to the Demilitarized Zone, which marks the sole remaining Cold War–era border, was part of ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, in which South Korea, the United States and allies fought an attempt by the North to invade the South in a three-year conflict that ended in a truce, but not a peace. There are approximately 2 million combat troops stationed along the four-kilometer-wide zone that separates the two countries on the Korean Peninsula.

2-PLUS-2 TALKS

The 2-plus-2 talks signal the long-standing strength of the U.S.-South Korean relationship formed in the aftermath of the Korean War. The talks included security issues in Northeast Asia, the U.S.-South Korean alliance and economic relations. The administration of former President George W. Bush and then the Obama administration have worked to obtain passage of the Korean Free Trade Agreement in Congress, but negotiations are still being held.

An international inquiry found that a North Korean torpedo, fired from a small submarine, sank a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, as it patrolled in open waters March 26, killing 46 sailors. The U.N. Security Council issued a presidential statement condemning the sinking of the naval vessel, saying that the sinking of the Cheonan posed a grave threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asian region. The United Nations also maintains sanctions against the North Korean regime.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said that since the sinking of the Cheonan the United States and South Korea have been engaged in high-level consultations to devise additional ways to bolster alliance capabilities and improve regional stability. Combined military exercises were discussed during the 2-plus-2 talks, including new naval and air exercises in both the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea.

Clinton said part of the reason for their visit to Seoul was to show continued solidarity with South Korea in the face of North Korean belligerence. Gates told reporters that their mission was intended “to send a strong signal to the North, to the region and to the world that our commitment to South Korea’s security is steadfast.”

These military exercises are planned to augment already planned exercises with elements of the U.S. and South Korean armed forces, Morrell said. “All of these exercises are defensive in nature, but will send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea.”

U.S. and South Korean officials will also discuss a plan agreed to by President Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak that will transfer wartime operational control of forces on the Korean Peninsula to South Korea by December 2015. The transfer had been scheduled for April 2012.