(CNSNews.com) – Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told “Fox News Sunday” that he plans to draft sanctions against Pyongyang preventing countries who do business with them from doing business with the U.S.
“We’ve already started with sanctions against North Korea, but I’m going to draft a sanctions package to send to the president for his strong consideration, that anybody that wants to do trade or business with them would be prevented from doing trade or business with us,” Mnuchin said.
“We are going to work with our allies. We’ll work with China, but people need to cut off North Korea economically. This is unacceptable behavior,” he said.
This comes after North Korea launched a hydrogen bomb – its most powerful explosive in a decade of missile testing.
As CNSNews.com reported, the president tweeted Monday, “I am allowing Japan South Korea to buy a substantially increased amount of highly sophisticated military equipment from the United States.
When asked if the U.S. will be tougher on Chinese financial institutions and companies, Mnuchin said, “Well, we’re going to strongly consider everything at this point, and again, I will draft a package for his strong consideration that would go as far as cutting off all trade and other business, and this behavior is unacceptable. And if countries want to do business with the United States, they obviously will be working with our allies and others to cut off North Korea economically.”
“Do we believe the Chinese reports that this was not an atomic bomb but a much more powerful hydrogen bomb. Did our intelligence community believe they have that capability? And I also want to put up a picture that the North Koreans put out yesterday, and it shows Kim, they said, expecting what they believe — they say was a nuclear warhead to be put on a ballistic missile. Do we believe they have not only the hydrogen bomb capability but also the miniaturization to put a warhead with that kind of a weapon on a missile?” host Chris Wallace asked.
“Chris, I can only say that our intelligence community has been doing an amazing job on this and on other issues. I obviously can’t describe or discuss some of the things that you’ve asked me. But I can say the intelligence community has done an incredible job,” Mnuchin responded.
The president also tweeted “South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!”
When asked what that “one thing” is, Mnuchin said, “Well, Chris, what I would say is, the president made it clear, this isn’t the time for just talk, this is time for action. That this type of behavior is not acceptable, and our objective has been and will continue to be to denuclearize the peninsula, that these types of tests are not being part of the world community.”
When asked if N.Korea’s recent testing puts the U.S. closer to a military response, Mnuchin said, “Again, Chris, I think the president made it clear that he will consider everything, but we are not going to broadcast our actions. And you know, we’ll continue to look at all our options, but my focus right now, working with the president, with others to make sure that we put additional economic sanctions. We work with China and others. China has a lot of trade with them. There’s a lot we can do to cut them off economically, much more than we’ve done already.”
Source material can be found at this site.
