Pence Threatens Tougher Sanctions Against North Korea

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February 8, 2018 2:28 AM

Vice President Mike Pence, dispatched to Asia to blunt a North Korean charm offensive at South Korea’s Olympic Games, said Wednesday that the United States planned to levy the toughest sanctions yet on the North over its nuclear and missile programs.

Pence’s threat, delivered in Tokyo, came two days after he had signaled openness to meeting with North Korean officials at the games, somewhat muddying the harsh message he had been sent to project.

But in Japan, the vice president quickly reverted to form. Speaking alongside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Pence said he planned to “stand with our allies and remind the world that North Korea is the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet.”

“We will continue to intensify our maximum pressure campaign until North Korea takes concrete steps toward complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization,” Pence said. He did not detail the precise timing or content of the sanctions. Analysts said they could target Chinese firms that do business with North Korea.

The Olympics, which open this week, are likely to showcase the diplomatic thaw between North and South, with the teams of the two nations marching together in the opening ceremony under a single flag and competing together in women’s ice hockey.

On Friday, North Korea announced it would send the only sister of its leader, Kim Jong Un, to South Korea as a member of its official delegation. That sets up at least the possibility of a landmark meeting with Pence, although Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, is under Treasury Department sanctions for her role in North Korea’s human rights abuses, which would make a meeting highly unlikely.

Indeed, Pence is drawing attention to abuses in North Korea at every stop of his Asia trip. He is bringing as a guest to the games the father of Otto F. Warmbier, the Ohio college student who was imprisoned in Pyongyang and fell into an irreversible coma. Warmbier died soon after being returned to his parents, Fred and Cindy, in Cincinnati.

“We will not allow North Korean propaganda to hijack the message and imagery of the Olympic Games,” Pence said. “We will not allow North Korea to hide behind the Olympic banner the reality that they enslave their people and threaten the wider region.”

The New York Times

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