Oil not target of new sanctions against N/Korea – Trump

The United States is set to announce a new set of sanctions against North Korea in a bid to curb its nuclear programme a white house official has said. The sanctions which will be announced by President Donald Trump is however not targeted at the country’s oil. This is even as more allies of the U.S. have called for enforcing international sanctions as the best way to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program.

Tensions have risen in recent weeks over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests, despite intense pressure from world powers. “We will be putting more sanctions on North Korea,” Trump said in response to a question at a meeting with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani in New York on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly. A senior administration official told Reuters earlier the announcement would be sanctions-related but would not target oil.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will hold a news briefing at 3 p.m. and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley will brief the news media  the White House said. On Tuesday, Trump said in his speech to the U.N. that he would “totally destroy” North Korea if threatened and mocked its leader Kim Jong Un as a “rocket man” for his repeated ballistic missile tests.