US Bans Aimed at Sabotaging Dialog with South

A North Korean Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Saturday described the new US sanctions as “a manifestation of heinous intention to throw a wet blanket over the inter-Korean exchange and cooperation and to aggravate the situation,” according to the country’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on nine North Korean entities — 16 people and six ships — accusing them of involvement in helping Pyongyang’s weapons programs.

Referring to the sanctions, the North Korean Spokesman said Washington had to stop such an “anachronistic” policy toward Pyongyang.

On Friday, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the breakthrough in talks between North and South Koreas must not become as a distraction from the aim of denuclearizing Pyongyang.

The first signs of thaw were seen in relations between Pyongyang and Seoul, as representatives from North and South Koreas began direct talks in early January, in the first instance of face-to-face dialog in more than two years at the Peace House in the Joint Security Area in the truce village of Panmunjom, at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the divided countries.

Seoul and Pyongyang have agreed on the North Korean team’s participation in the Olympic Games, while North and South Korea will march together under a unified Korean flag for the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang next month.

Pyongyang has firmly defended its military program as a deterrent against the hostile policies of the US and its regional allies, including South Korea and Japan. North Korean officials have time and again accused their American counterparts of seeking regime change in their country.

Washington’s decades-long military presence in and around the Korean Peninsula has forced Pyongyang to develop its ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons as a deterrent against Washington's aggression.

Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have also held a series of high-profile war games near the Korean Peninsula over the past months, amid an ongoing standoff over Pyongyang's development of ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads, as both South Korea and Japan – despite tense relations amid disputes over history and territory – are allies and look to the US for their security.

The United States has thousands of troops in the region, partially in South Korea and Japan, and routinely threatens the North with military action to stop its weapons program.