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On DPRK holiday, US adds new sanctions

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-10 08:56

SEOUL: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) celebrated its founding yesterday by pledging to pursue friendly global relations and signaling it was still open to dialogue after Washington froze the assets of firms linked to its arms trade.

Analysts said the DPRK, hit by UN sanctions for a nuclear test in May, has been playing a tactical game with the international community by making a series of conciliatory gestures in August followed this month by a statement saying it had advanced in enriching uranium.

"(We) will boost the solidarity with the peoples of all the countries in the world advocating independence, consistently holding fast to the idea of independence, peace and friendship," the DPRK's premier said in comments carried on its KCNA news agency.

The DPRK claimed last week that it was running a program to enrich uranium for weapons, potentially giving it a new path to build nuclear arms as suspected by Washington.

Assets freeze

The United States moved on Tuesday to freeze the assets of two DPRK entities believed to be involved in its atomic and missile programs. The State Department moved against its General Bureau of Atomic Energy, which oversees the nuclear program, and Korea Tangun Trading Corp, believed to support its missile programs.

A US official said the steps aimed to show that Washington would keep raising economic pressure on Pyongyang until it renewed its commitment to abandon its nuclear programs and resumed talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US.

The UN sanctions were aimed at cutting into the DPRK's alleged arms trade, which Western nations believe provides the state with hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The DPRK denies that it is trafficking weapons.

Related readings:  US-DPRK talks likely ahead of six-party negotiations  DPRK holds national meeting to mark founding of country  US beefs up sanctions against DPRK  ROK asks DPRK to apologize for flooding  China reaffirms dialogue after DPRK's uranium claim

"The North has accomplished what it wanted with its missile and nuclear tests," said Paik Hak-soon, an expert at the Sejong Institute near Seoul.

"Now they're working on sitting down with the United States for talks."

River flood raises tensions

In the Republic of Korea (ROK), anger was still high over a weekend incident where Pyongyang released a surge of water from one of its dams into a river that flows northwest of Seoul, causing a flash flood that killed six people in the ROK. Unification Minister Hyun In-taek told a parliamentary committee that Seoul believed the event was intentional.

The DPRK has tried to reach out to Seoul for the past month to restore joint ventures and perhaps pressure Seoul to resume massive food aid that had been suspended.

Reuters