PhotoWASHINGTON — President Trump announced harsh new shipping sanctions against North Korea on Friday — a clear signal, near the end of an Olympic Games marked by a rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula, that his pressure campaign against Pyongyang will not let up. “Today, I am announcing that we are launching the largest-ever set of new sanctions on the North Korean regime,” Mr. Trump said to the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Oxon Hill, Md. The measures target 27 shipping companies and 28 vessels, registered in North Korea and six other countries, including China. The Treasury Department said the shipping firms are part of a sophisticated campaign to help North Korea evade United Nations sanctions restricting imports of refined fuel and exports of coal. Illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil and coal on the high seas have allowed North Korea to avoid the worst of the pressure from sanctions against its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Source: New York Times February 23, 2018 14:51 UTC