According to the Nova agency, North Korean atomic weapons could threaten the territory of the United States of America "very soon", but the presidential administration is doing everything possible to prevent this scenario from taking place. This was stated by US President Donald Trump during his speech on the state of the Union, in front of the united rooms of the US Congress. "We are conducting a campaign of maximum pressure to prevent" North Korea adopting a ballistic arsenal, explained Trump, who also came back to criticize "the mistakes of past administrations: past experience has taught us that complacency and the concessions only invite further aggressions and provocations, "said Trump." I will not repeat the mistakes of the past administrations that have led us in this dangerous situation ".
Trump then went on to point the index against North Korean regime's abuse of human rights: no country Trump said, he oppressed his citizens in a "more complete or brutal" way than the North Korean "cruel dictatorship" did. "We need only look at the depraved character of the North Korean regime to understand the nature of the nuclear threat it poses to America and its allies," said the president, recalling the case of Otto Warmbier, the US citizen who died last year after over a year of imprisonment in North Korea.
During his speech, Trump also mentioned Ji Seong-ho, a North Korean transfuge who would be tortured by the authorities in his country after stealing coal to trade for food.
The response of North Korea did not wait and promptly replied to the words of the US president, defining his administration as a "blatant violator of human rights". The North Korean regime's news agency, "Korean Central News Agency" ("KCNA") has released in English the annual Pyongyang white paper on US human rights violations just in conjunction with the State of the Union US president. "The United States, which claims to be guardians of democracy e human rights champions, they are wielding the human rights racket, but they can never conceal their true identity of blatant human rights violators, "says the document released by the North Korean agency, which among other things accuses the United States of" racial discrimination and misanthropy ". The UN estimates that up to 120 thousand political prisoners are held in the North Korean gulags and prisons.
The United States has imposed additional sanctions on nine North Korean entities this month in response to Pyongyang's ballistic and nuclear programs. Those affected by Washington sanctions include the North Korean oil industry ministry and two Chinese companies accused of links to the regime's war programs. The US Treasury Department also sanctioned 16 North Korean individuals and six ships from that country in an attempt to stop the smuggling of goods and resources to Pyongyang in violation of international sanctions. "The Treasury will continue to systematically target individuals and entities who finance the Kim regime (Jong-un) and its armament programs, including officials involved in North Korean plans for avoiding sanctions," reads a read release yesterday by the US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin.
The two Chinese companies affected by US unilateral sanctions are Chengxing Trading CO., Based in Beijing, and Dandong Jinxiang Trade Co., both commercial companies that, according to the US Treasury, have jointly exported 68 millions of dollars of goods to North Korea, and they have imported millions of dollars from that country for 19. Chengxing Trading, in particular, would have exported two tons of very pure metals to a subsidiary of North Korea Korea Ryonbong General Corporations, already included in the list of US and UN sanctions.
The 16 individuals affected by the new US Treasury sanctions include 10 representatives of that North Korean company in China, Russia and Georgia; the penalties prohibit them from possessing or controlling any asset or interest in the US jurisdiction, or doing business with US citizens.
Dandong Jinxiang Trade would do business with another North Korean company sanctioned by the UN and the US, Korea Tangun Trading Corporation, also known as Korea Kuryonggang Trading Corporation, a company close to the Second North Korean Academy of Natural Sciences, an entity involved in the ballistic programs and North Korean nuclear.
The list of the six sanctioned North Korean vessels includes the cargo ship Ul Ji Bong 6, which last year's September 5 transported a cargo of coal from the Wonsan port in North Korea to that in Kholmsk, Russia. "We will sanction other oil, transport and commercial companies that continue to represent a vital line for the North Korean regime's nuclear ambitions and destabilizing activities," said Mnuchin.