Trump announces 'largest-ever' set of sanctions on North Korea
The White House announced a brand new set of sanctions in its efforts to strip North Korea of its access to smuggling routes used by the regime to evade a United Nations embargo and fund its nuclear weapons programme.
"Today I am announcing that we are launching the largest-ever set of new sanctions on the North Korean regime," Trump will supposedly say at a conservative conference later in the day, according to excerpts of a speech released by the Oval Office.
According to his prepared remarks, the Treasury department would soon take action to "further cut off sources of revenue and fuel that North Korea uses to fund its nuclear program and sustain its military."
Trump's new measures will target 56 known vessels and shipping and trading companies that he claimed had been helping North Korea sidestep international sanctions.
In response to the rogue nation's sixth nuclear test and multiple long-range missile tests, back in September the US President convinced the UN security council to impose its strongest sanctions to date on Pyongyang, which included a cap on North Korean oil imports, the Trump administration's greatest diplomatic victory so far.
But since then, intelligence sources reported that a number of ship-to-ship transfers of fuel had taken place in international waters, with Russian vessels allegedly involved in smuggling oil in December.
The new measures coming out of Pennsylvania Avenue were not expected to include sanctions on Russian ships or companies, despite multiple allegations and questions surrounding the administration's softness towards Moscow.