U.S., Japan Agree: Sanctions Affecting N. Korea
TOKYO - The United States and Japan believe United Nations sanctions against North Korea over its recent nuclear test are having a "great impact" on the regime, officials said Aug. 25 after talks between the allies.
Philip Goldberg, the U.S. diplomat tasked with enforcing the U.N. sanctions, met with Akitaka Saiki, Japan's chief negotiator in multilateral talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.
Goldberg earlier visited South Asian countries and South Korea to study how they have been implementing the U.N. sanctions, which include an arms embargo and inspections of some North Korean air, sea and land shipments.
"We evaluate that the U.N. Security Council sanctions, which have been implemented strictly by the international community, are having a significantly great impact on North Korea," Saiki told reporters after the meeting attended by U.S. and Japanese finance, intelligence and defense officials.
Officials did not detail the effects of the sanctions on the regime.
Pyongyang quit the six-party talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program after the U.N. Security Council censured it for a long-range rocket launch in April. The regime staged its second nuclear test in May.
The United States has urged North Korea to return to the stalled talks, which comprise the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
North Korea has recently made overtures to the United States and South Korea, releasing two jailed U.S. journalists and a South Korean detainee.
It also sent a high-level delegation to former South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung's funeral last weekend and has said it is willing to restart lucrative tourist trips and family reunions for South Koreans.
But Saiki said the United States and Japan, along with South Korea, "would not mix up North Korea's recent phenomenal behavior with its nuclear problem".
He stressed that Pyongyang should "take actions" and abandon nuclear arms.
U.S., Japan Agree: Sanctions Affecting N. Korea - Defense News
