US to hit NKorea with more sanctions in August

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US to hit NKorea with more sanctions in August

By ROBERT BURNS (AP) – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Tightening the screws on North Korea, the Obama administration said

Wednesday it would expand and strengthen sanctions against the isolated regime

and its nuclear weapons program, a tactic which in the past has been undercut by

North Korea's knack for finding loopholes and escape hatches.

The fresh round of sanctions was announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham

Clinton during a visit to Seoul, but officials in Washington said the moves will

not be ready to be put in place for another two weeks.

The State Department announced that Einhorn, charged with overseeing the

administration's implementation of sanctions against North Korea and Iran, will

travel to Asia in early August — once sanction details are final — to rally

support among U.S. friends and allies.

China, whose role in enforcing North Korea sanctions is considered vital, is a

likely stop on Einhorn's tour. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley declined

to discuss Einhorn's itinerary.

Clinton is expected to discuss the sanctions with Chinese officials during an

Asia security conference in Vietnam this week. North Korean Foreign Minister Pak

Ui Chun is expected to attend those meetings, although he and Clinton are not

expected to engage in any face-to-face talks.

In Seoul, Clinton said the U.S. moves will target arms deals and other

clandestine trade used to finance the communist regime's nuclear activities, and

imports of luxury items for the ruling elite in Pyongyang.

" They are directed at the destabilizing, illicit and provocative policies

pursued by that government, " she said. Clinton was referring to North Korea's

nuclear weapons program as well as its alleged large-scale counterfeiting,

smuggling, drug trafficking and weapons technology exports.

The U.S. penalties are intended to further isolate the hermit nation and

persuade its leaders to return to talks aimed at getting it to abandon atomic

weapons. The U.S. is also trying to forestall future provocative acts like the

March torpedoing of the Cheonan, a South Korean naval vessel, which killed 46

South Korean sailors. North Korea denies it sank the ship.

Bruce , a North Korea expert at the RAND Corp., a federally-financed

think tank, said the new U.S. actions are a reflection of North Korea's ability

to skirt aspects of earlier sanctions, including two rounds of extensive

penalties passed by the U.N. Security Council.

" It's saying, `We haven't been very effective in imposing the previously enacted

sanctions,' and so this is an effort to try to strengthen the previous sanctions

and make them work, " said.

Crowley acknowledged that North Korea has found ways to evade earlier sanctions.

" North Korean entities are adapting to the existing actions that we have been

taking, " Crowley said. " We gain significant intelligence information all the

time about what they're doing. "

The spokesman said North Korea has created foreign front companies to help it

get around U.N. sanctions.

" They look to see, you know, which countries have been effectively complying and

enforcing, you know, U.N. Security Council resolutions. They look to see if

there are seams and gaps in the international effort, " he said.

The most recent round of U.N. sanctions was in June 2009. Those sought to

deprive North Korea of financing and material for its weapons program and banned

it arms exports, especially missiles. It did not ban normal trade, but called on

international financial institutions to halt grants, aid or loans to the North

except for humanitarian, development and efforts to dismantle its nuclear

programs.

C. Bush III, director of Northeast Asia policy studies at the Brookings

Institution, said in an interview that he believes the new U.S. sanctions are

more than merely a response to the sinking of the Cheonan in March.

He believes they also are meant as a message to the next set of North Korean

leaders, who are believed to be angling for positions of power in anticipation

of the passing of the nation's current leader, Kim Jong Il.

Szechenyi, a northeast Asia policy analyst at the Center for Strategic

and International Studies in Washington, said the key to effective U.S.

sanctions is how they are implemented.

" If the U.S. is doing this in isolation, doing this piecemeal, then I don't

think they'll have much effect, " he said. " But if there's a unified effort to

not only announce these sanctions as an act of solidarity with our South Korean

allies but also to apply some pressure on North Korea, then I think over time it

might work. "

Associated Press writers Lee in Seoul and Klug in Washington

contributed to this report.

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