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The United Nations dropped the hammer Friday on companies and persons helping North Korea skirt tough international sanctions meant to punish it for its illegal weapons testing.
The U.N. blacklisted 27 ships, 21 shipping companies, and one individual for unlawfully engaging North Korea. The move will ban blacklisted ships from ports around the world and freeze the assets of the companies and individuals punished by the sanctions package. The sanctions target five shipping companies in China, 15 North Korean vessels, 12 non-Korean ship, and a man from Taiwan.
The Taiwanese man — Tsang Yung Yuan — stands accused of orchestrating “North Korean coal exports with a North Korean broker operating in a third country, and he has a history of other sanctions evasion activities,” according to the U.N. statement on the matter.
“The approval of this historic sanctions package is a clear sign that the international community is united in our efforts to keep up maximum pressure on the North Korean regime,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in response to this move, the largest blacklisting of companies and individuals caught illegally aiding North Korea.
Many of the entities hit by the latest U.N. sanctions were previously targeted by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, according to The New York Times.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un recently met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing as part of the young despot’s first trip abroad since he became the leader of North Korea. He is expected to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in soon, and then a meeting with President Donald Trump is possible after that meeting.
While Trump has said that he is looking forward to the meeting, he has made it clear that the maximum pressure campaign will continue until North Korea takes concrete steps toward denuclearization.
For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2018
Received message last night from XI JINPING of China that his meeting with KIM JONG UN went very well and that KIM looks forward to his meeting with me. In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2018
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