US official in charge of sanctions meets with SKoreans to discuss penalties against NKorea

US official in Seoul to discuss NKorea sanctions

SEOUL, South Korea — A senior U.S. envoy in charge of implementing sanctions met Monday with South Korean officials to discuss new financial penalties on North Korea.

The trip by Robert Einhorn, the State Department’s special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control, comes two weeks after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the U.S. would impose new financial sanctions on North Korea.

Clinton said the new penalties would target the sale and purchase of arms and related goods used to fund the communist regime’s nuclear activities, and the acquisition of luxury items to reward its elite. The details of how and when the sanctions would be carried out have not been released.

Officials also said the sanctions are part of measures designed to encourage North Korea to stop its pattern of provocations.

Washington and Seoul blame the North for the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors in late March. Pyongyang denies attacking the ship.

“We will apply measured sanctions against North Korea as we have in the past and tailor to help influence the thinking of the government and those who support the government,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington before Einhorn’s departure.

Einhorn was accompanied by Daniel Glaser, the Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes. They head to Tokyo on Tuesday for talks with senior Japanese officials.