US says sanctions are 'really damaging' North Korea
(Baonghean.vn)- On January 17, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the country is receiving evidence that international sanctions are "beginning to take a toll" on North Korea, and welcomed China's pressure on Pyongyang.
Speaking at an event at Stanford University in California, Mr. Tillerson affirmed that South Korean President Moon Jae-in attributed the damage caused by sanctions as the reason for Pyongyang's recent goodwill in dialogue with Seoul.
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| US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Photo: AP |
The top US diplomat expressed confidence that pressure would eventually bring North Korea back to the negotiating table over its nuclear and missile programs, and wanted to know when that would happen, because Washington “has very strong military options.”
Citing intelligence evidence and reports from defectors, Mr. Tillerson said: “We are getting a lot of evidence that these sanctions are really starting to hurt.”
He also reiterated the statement of the Japanese representative at the recently concluded foreign ministers' conference on North Korea in Vancouver, Canada, that more than 100 North Korean fishing boats had drifted into Japanese waters and two-thirds of the crew members on these boats had died.
Although China did not attend the Vancouver conference, where 20 countries agreed to step up sanctions pressure on North Korea, the US Secretary of State still highlighted Beijing’s role, asserting: “We have never had more support from China for sanctions than we have today.”