File Photo: Military vehicles are seen at a grand military parade celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Army at the Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang.
The United States on imposed sanctions on a Russian port service agency and Chinese firms on Wednesday for aiding North Korean ships and selling alcohol and tobacco to Pyongyang in breach of U.S. sanctions aimed at pressuring North Korea to end its nuclear programs.
The U.S. Treasury said in a statement China-based Dalian Sun Moon Star International Logistics Trading Co. Ltd and its Singapore-based affiliate SINSMS Pte. Ltd had netted more than $1 billion a year by exporting alcohol and cigarette products to North Korea.
The department also sanctioned Russian-based Profinet Pte Ltd and its director general, Vasili Aleksandrovich Kolchanov, for providing port services on at least six occasions to North Korean-flagged ships.
Kolchanov was personally involved in North Korea-related deals and interacted directly with North Korean representatives in Russia, the Treasury department said.
"The tactics that these entities based in China, Singapore, and Russia are using to attempt to evade sanctions are prohibited under U.S. law, and all facets of the shipping industry have a responsibility to abide by them or expose themselves to serious risks," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
Washington has been pressuring North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program.
Gao Ye, legal representative of Dalian Sun Moon Star International Logistics Trading, said when asked for comment on the U.S. Treasury statement the matter was still unclear and the Chinese company had not received any notice.
South Korean officials travelled to North Korea Wednesday to prepare reunions for relatives separated by their tense border.Lee Jong-chol of the Red Cross is in charge of the 18-member delegation, which was only able to enter the North with Pyongyang’s permission.Some 93 family members from the South are set to be reunited with their North Korean relatives from next Monday to Wednesday. Then from Friday to Sunday, 88 chosen individuals from the North will have the opportunity to meet their kin from South Korea.The events at North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort will be the first of their kind since 2015 and represent a key outcome of April’s breakthrough inter-Korean summit.North Korea claims Putin wants Kim summitPyongyang’s state-run media had recently reported threats to cancel the reunions amid criticisms of Seoul for holding firm on sanctions against the North as well as allegedly luring a group of overseas North Korean restaurant workers to escape from their post in China in 2016.However, plans appear to be proceeding smoothly, with South Korea’s advance team in line to carry out inspections and remain in the North until the reunions are finished.Concerns have been mounting that time is running out for 56,000 registered separated relatives in South Korea alone, given that more than seven decades have passed since the Korean War broke out.
South Korean team heads to North for family reunions
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his readiness to meet North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un “at an early date,” according to Pyongyang’s state-run KCNA news agency Wednesday.Putin has been kept waiting for an answer after asking Kim to attend next month’s economic forum in Vladivostok, but Pyongyang did confirm this week that South Korean President Moon Jae-in will visit the North Korean capital “within September.”Language hurdles plague two Koreas after years of divisionThe Russian leader’s personal message celebrated the 73rd anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, which is marked as a holiday in both the North and the South.Putin reportedly mentioned the need “to discuss urgent issues of bilateral relations and important matters of the region”. They would apparently include “reciprocal cooperation” involving economic ties between Russia and both Koreas.Meanwhile, at the risk of arousing suspicion from the South’s military ally the United States, Moon declared his ambition to create a Northeast Asian ‘railroad community’ including his own country along with the North, Russia, China, Japan and Mongolia.North Korea threatens to keep nukesNorth, South Korea agree on third summit to be held in Pyongyang“This community will lead to an energy bloc and economic bloc in Northeast Asia by expanding our economic area to the northern continent and becoming the foundation of co-existence and prosperity in Northeast Asia,” the South Korean president said in his Liberation Day address.While insisting that “economic cooperation can really take off” when North Korea has denuclearized, the South’s president added that Seoul aims to connect roads and railways across the inter-Korean border by the end of the year.The U.S. has called on all countries to adhere to global sanctions against the North, which is yet to agree on a timeline for its denuclearization despite two months passing since June 12’s summit agreement between Chairman Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump.
North Korea claims Putin wants Kim summit
North and South Korea agreed to hold a summit in Pyongyang in September, the latest step forward in cross-border ties this year after more high-level talks on Monday, the South's Unification Ministry said.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in April and May at the border truce village of Panmunjom, within the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas, and agreed that the next summit in autumn would be held in the North Korean capital.The two Koreas held a fresh round of talks at the DMZ on Monday to discuss the third summit, led by the South's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the North's reunification committee.Ri said both sides agreed on specific details, including the date for the summit, but declined to elaborate.However, again without giving details, he said it was important to clear "obstacles" that prevent inter-Korean relations from moving forward as planned."If the issues that were raised at the talks aren't resolved, unexpected problems could emerge and the issues that are already on the schedule may face difficulties," Ri said at the end of the meeting.Cho also refused to specify the problems raised by Ri but said there was talk of humanitarian issues and ways to improve inter-Korean relations.He said the next summit in Pyongyang would help improve cross-border ties by allowing the two leaders to discuss the North's denuclearisation and how to establish peace on the Korean peninsula.North Korea's Kim has a held a flurry of diplomatic summits with the leaders of South Korea, China, and the United States this year. Moon, the only South Korean leader to have met a North Korean leader twice, will become the first leader to visit Pyongyang this year.The North has been heavily sanctioned over its pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles but Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed at their landmark summit in Singapore in June to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.North Korea has denounced U.S.-led efforts to maintain sanctions despite what Pyongyang says are goodwill gestures, including halting its weapons testing and returning the remains of U.S. troops killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War.U.S. officials familiar with the talks, however, told Reuters that North Korea had yet to agree to a timeline for eliminating its nuclear arsenal or to disclose its size, which U.S. estimates have put at between 30 and 60 warheads.Red Cross warns of food crisis in North KoreaLanguage hurdles plague two Koreas after years of divisionNorth Korea threatens to keep nukes
North, South Korea agree on third summit to be held in Pyongyang