US pauses new North Korea sanctions as officials try to reset summit: report

The U.S. will hold off on applying major new sanctions against North Korea while it tries to put back on track a June meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

A U.S. official told the Journal that the White House had been set to announce the sanctions as soon as Tuesday but will now delay them indefinitely as negotiations with North Korea continue.

American officials are currently in North Korea to meet with their counterparts in the village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone near the South Korean border. The officials are meeting through Tuesday attempting to get the June 12 summit in Singapore back in motion.   

Trump last week unexpectedly canceled the planned summit with Kim, citing North Korea’s “tremendous anger and open hostility.” The two countries, as well as South Korea, have since worked to reschedule the meeting, with the White House this weekend sending a team of U.S. officials to Singapore to meet with North Koreans and prepare should the summit go forward.{mosads} 

When he canceled the summit, Trump said his administration’s “maximum pressure campaign” of sanctions against North Korea “will continue as it has been continuing.”

Two administration officials told the Journal that the Treasury Department had readied a sanctions package aimed at more than 30 targets, including Russian and Chinese entities. 

The United States and the United Nations over the last several years have been able to ban most of North Korea’s trade and cut off a large portion its foreign income stream — including getting China to reduce trade. But the isolated nation still gets money from a network of countries that resist the sanctions, including Russia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Syria, Malaysia and dozens of others.

North Korea sells its weapons, for instance, to Syria and Iran.