North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

Let’s Play Two

US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and US Secretary of Defense, Dr. Robert Gates, have concluded a joint appearance in the ROK, which included the 2 + 2 meeting with their ROK counterparts, a visit to the DMZ and a wreath laying at the Korea War Memorial.

Yonhap reports on what it describes as “one of the biggest shows of the nearly six-decade alliance.”:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a set of new sanctions against North Korea on Wednesday to punish Pyongyang for the sinking of a South Korean warship and warn the communist regime against further provocations.

The announcement came after Clinton, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and their South Korean counterparts held unprecedented high-level security talks meant to underscore the firmness of their alliance in the wake of North Korea’s deadly sinking of the warship Cheonan in March.

“Today, I’m announcing a series of measures to increase our ability to prevent North Korea’s proliferation, to halt their illicit activities that helped fund their weapons programs and to discourage further provocative actions,” Clinton told a news conference in Seoul after high-level security talks with South Korean officials.

Clinton said Washington’s “new country-specific sanctions” will target the North’s “sale and procurement of arms and related material and the procurement of luxury goods and other illicit activities.”

“Let me stress that these measures are not directed at the people of North Korea who have suffered too long due to the misguided and malign priorities of their government,” she said. “They are directed at the destabilizing illicit and provocative policies pursued by that government.”

In addition to fresh sanctions, Clinton said that the U.S. will expand sanctions already in place under U.N. resolutions to “identify, pressure and put out of business North Korean entities involved in proliferation and other illicit activities overseas.”

Here is the complete 2 + 2 Joint Statement.

A North Korean Soldier looks in through the window of the T2 building as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates tour the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Korea, July 21, 2010. Defense Department photo by Cherie Cullen

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This article was written on 21 Jul 2010, and is filled under DPRK-US Relations, Inter-Korean Relations, KJI Personal Secretariat, Second Economic Committee, Six Party Talks, Third Floor.

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