US to review travel ban, sanctions to ensure aid reaches North Korea

The United States has said that there are plans to review sanctions against North Korea and a ban on travel to the country imposed on US citizens.

The aim is to ensure that they do not limit humanitarian aid, an American envoy has said.

The US Special Representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, disclosure on Wednesday, on his arrival in Seoul for four days of meetings with South Korean officials.

Earlier before his trip, aid groups had complained that strict enforcement of sanctions imposed on North Korea had been delaying and, in some cases, preventing delivery of aid to the impoverished country.

“I’ll be sitting down with American aid groups early in the new year to discuss how we can better ensure the delivery of appropriate assistance,” Biegun said.

North Korea current sanctions are largely concerned with its nuclear weapons programme and were imposed after its first nuclear test in 2006.

The US Department of Treasury sanctioned North Korea since the 1950s.

ALSO READ: Yemen at risk of ‘big famine’ ―UN

Sanctions against North Korea further tightened with international bombings against South Korea by North Korean agents during the 1980s.

In 1988, the US added North Korea to the Department of State’s list of state sponsors of international terrorism.

North Korea continued its nuclear programme and officially withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, and countries started to reinstate various sanctions.

Additional sanctions and UN Security Council Resolutions were imposed after North Korea performed nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, 2013 and more recently in 2016 and 2017.

Initially, sanctions focused on trade bans on weapon-related materials and goods but expanded to luxury goods to target the elite.

Further sanctions expanded to financial assets and banking transactions, and general travel and trade.