U.S. Treasury issues sanctions over alleged fuel shipments to N.Korea

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. Pyeongyang hit back, claiming that expectations for talks with Washington are quote, "disappearing". 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. 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. This comes after Pompeo said on Tuesday said the Trump administration recognized that “North Korea’s rogue behavior" could not be ignored while touting the administration's foreign policy approach in a speech to U.S. veterans in Indiana. In a statement carried by Pyeongyang's state media KCNA on Saturday, North Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said Pompeo’s comments Tuesday increased the North Korean people’s animosity toward Americans and made it harder to resume nuclear talks. Choe said North Korea's expectations of dialogue with the U.S. are gradually disappearing and that it is being pushed to reexamine all measures . Negotiations aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear program have stalled since U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in June at the inter-Korean border. Kim Hyesung, Arirang News. #US #NorthKorea #shipment Arirang News Facebook: http://bit.ly/2xq5qxp