N. Korea to face new U.S. sanctions

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Wednesday that Washington will impose new sanctions on communist North Korea in a bid to stem the regime's illicit atomic ambitions.

Clinton, speaking at a joint news conference in Seoul after holding unprecedented security talks with U.S. and South Korean defence and military officials, said the sanctions were part of measures designed to rein in the regime's nuclear activities by stamping out illegal money-making ventures used to fund the program.

She said the sanctions would be aimed at the sale or procurement of arms and related goods as well as the procurement of luxury items.

The U.S. will freeze assets as well as prevent some businesses and individuals from travelling abroad, and collaborate with banks to stop illegal financial transactions. The sanctions also will seek to stop the abuse of diplomatic privileges in order to carry out illegal activities, Clinton said.

"These measures are not directed at the people of North Korea, who have suffered too long due to the misguided priorities of their government," Clinton said. "They are directed at the destabilizing, illicit and provocative policies pursued by that government."

The United Nations Security Council has imposed stiff sanctions on North Korea in recent years to punish the regime for defying the world body by testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles and illegally selling arms and weapons.

Illicit revenue sources

With few allies and diminishing sources of aid, impoverished North Korea is believed to be turning to illicit ventures to raise much-needed cash. Pyongyang also walked away last year from a disarmament-for-aid pact with five other nations that had provided the country with fuel oil and other concessions.

Clinton, making a high-profile trip to South Korea with U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates just four months after the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, urged North Korea to turn away from its path toward continued isolation.

"From the beginning of the Obama administration, we have made clear that there is a path open to the DPRK to achieve the security and international respect it seeks," she said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"North Korea can cease its provocative behaviour, halt its threats and belligerence towards its neighbours, take irreversible steps to fulfil its denuclearization commitments and comply with international law," Clinton said.