'Next step' being mulled by senior Washington officials
The United States is reportedly going to announce broad sanctions against North Korea as early as this weekend, following the United Nations Security Council's (UNSC) adoption of a resolution against the North in response to its missile test-fires on July 5, local time. According to an unnamed source in Washington on July 31, "The U.S. is looking at reimposing broad sanctions on North Korea and the Bush administration's announcement is likely to come out as early as the beginning of next week." On August 1, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill ruled out a military response against Pyongyang, saying in Manila that Washington will see to it first that North Korea cannot forge American currency and get its hands to new missile technology. He said Washington would employ every available means to make it difficult for the North Koreans to do either thing. At a regular briefing the same day, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack made indications that Washington will step up countermeasures to try to stop Pyongyang's weapons programs. According to him, the U.S. has so far taken defensive measures to protect its currency and to prevent the North from exporting weapon-related goods, which he says coincides perfectly with the UNSC resolution.Imposing economic sanctions is one of the options that are on the table, according to Molly Millerwise, a spokeswoman for Stuart Levey, the U.S. Treasury Department's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. But nothing has been decided yet as far as the Treasury's response, Millerwise stressed. On July 31, Levey, in an interview with the Financial Times of Britain, said that the U.S. is contemplating how to cope with Pyongyang's missile launches. To reimpose economic sanctions which were lifted in 2000 is "one of the things being considered," Levey said. He said that North Korean political leaders are believed to be hiding a considerable amount of slush funds at worldwide banks, and that the U.S. continues to "encourage financial institutions to carefully assess the risk of holding any North Korea-related accounts."
