Oct 28 (Reuters) – The United States issued new North Korea-related sanctions on Wednesday, targeting 10 individuals and one entity, according to a notice posted to the Treasury Department’s website.
The targeted entity is named the First Financial and Technical Development Center, and six of the sanctioned individuals are linked to that firm, according to the Treasury Department notice. Two of the targeted individuals are Russian nationals and the rest appear to be North Korean.
The sanctions come as US President Donald Trump has been eager to jump-start talks with North Korea, but Pyongyang has shown little interest in diplomacy aimed at containing its nuclear program. However, earlier this month Trump downplayed the idea of another high-profile meeting with Kim in China next month.
Trump became the only US president to have met a North Korean leader when he held an unprecedented series of summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, but the diplomatic efforts broke down over US demands that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons.
Trump has since referred to North Korea repeatedly as a “nuclear power,” although his administration has continued to call for the country’s denuclearization and has not formally recognized it as a nuclear-weapons state.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Ismail Shakil; editing by Michelle Nichols )
