WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States moved yesterday to freeze the assets of two North Korean entities believed to be involved in atomic and missile programs, raising pressure on Pyongyang to resume disarmament talks.
Despite a recent charm offensive by North Korea, the State Department moved against its General Bureau of Atomic Energy, which oversees the nuclear program, and Korea Tangun Trading Corp, believed to support its missile programs.
Both were targeted under a presidential executive order that allows the White House to freeze the US assets of people and entities suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction or the means to deliver them, including missiles.
“These designations continue US efforts to prevent North Korean entities of proliferation concern from accessing financial and commercial markets that could aid the regime’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons and the missiles capable of delivering them,” the State Department said in a statement.
The action requires US individuals, banks and other institutions to block the assets of the North Korean entities.
It was unclear whether either actually had any assets under US jurisdiction but American officials said Washington hoped the move would discourage other countries from doing business with North Korea.
“Are we hoping for a spillover effect? Of course,” said one US official.
This official and several analysts said the steps aimed to signal that Washington will keep raising economic pressure on Pyongyang until it renews its commitment to abandon its nuclear programs and resumes multilateral aid-for-disarmament talks.
The impoverished communist state walked away from the talks in December and has taken a series of steps that have troubled Washington and its allies, firing ballistic missiles in April and July and conducting its second nuclear test in May.
Over the last month, the North has taken conciliatory steps such as freeing two US journalists accused of crossing its border illegally and releasing South Korean fishermen whose vessel drifted into North Korean waters.
However, it has so far refused to resume talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States under which it promised in 2005 to abandon all its nuclear programs.
“The clear signal is that we are ratcheting it up,” said a US official, who spoke on condition that he not be named. “It is making nice noises but … there are concerns that they may be moving forward on their nuclear activities.”
The official was alluding to North Korea’s claim on Friday to have carried out experimental uranium enrichment, a process which, if mastered, could give it a second path to nuclear weapons in addition to its plutonium-based program.
The United States has long suspected the North of having a secret program to enrich uranium for weapons. Experts have said it has not developed anything near a full-scale uranium program while it has enough plutonium for six to eight bombs.
