President Donald Trump said Thursday he will announce new sanctions on North Korea in a latest attempt by the United States to punish the country for its nuclear weapons program.
“We will be putting more sanctions on North Korea,” Trump said ahead of talks with Afghanistan’s president in New York.
Trump plans to unveil the sanctions during a midday working lunch with the leaders of South Korea and Japan, key partners in his efforts to isolate Pyongyang.
The new sanctions come two days after Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if it continues to threaten the United States and its allies.
Trump insists that military options are on the table for dealing with North Korea, but his aides have said diplomacy is the preferred outlet for containing the nuclear crisis.
The United Nations Security Council has approved multiple rounds of sanctions on North Korea, including on its exports. But they have yet to stop the communist nation’s leader Kim Jong Un from launching ballistic missile tests.
During talks Thursday with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, Trump is expected to reiterate that military options are available in retaliation for North Korean threats.
That’s likely to draw a rebuke from Moon, who has ruled out military action and issued warnings on the ramped-up rhetoric coming from Washington.