A senior U.S. defense official says Washington's sanctions campaign on North Korea is intended to encourage the regime back to the negotiating table,... with a mindset to be productive and driven to find solutions.
Randall Schriver's latest remarks come as working-level talks between the two sides in Sweden this month were stopped almost as quickly as they began.
Lee Seung-jae has more.
Speaking at the Jamestown Foundation's annual China defense and security conference on Tuesday,... U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, Randall Schriver, said U.S. sanctions on North Korea are mostly intended to bring the regime to talks in a way that ensures productive discussions.
Schriver stressed the importance of all countries that have the capability to contribute to sanctions enforcement on the North.
He noted how China has shown "some slippage" in its enforcement,... particularly when it comes to ship-to-ship transfers in their territorial waters.
According to Schriver,... the Chinese shoulder a lot of responsibility when it comes to North Korea evading sanctions,... despite publicly backing the most recent UN sanctions against the regime.
With North Korea under layer after layer of U.S. and international sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs,... it continues to demand they are eased.
However,... Washington insists Pyeongyang has to begin dismantling the programs first.
Speaking at a forum hosted by George Washington University's Institute for Korean Studies this week,... former U.S. envoy for North Korea Joseph Yun said North Korea's most recent missile test wrecked the regime's chances of reaching a nuclear deal with the U.S. earlier this month.
Yun said the missile launch,... just three days before the Sweden meeting was one of two mistakes the North made ahead of the negotiations.
Yun identified Pyeongyang's second mistake as assuming that last month's departure of hawkish former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton would result in a softening of Washington's demands.
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.