“These designations include companies that have engaged in trade with North Korea cumulatively worth hundreds of millions of dollars," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. | Getty Images Treasury imposes new sanctions aimed at North Korea

The Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed new sanctions targeting North Korea, stepping up pressure on the regime to abandon its nuclear development program.

The sanctions come a day after the Trump administration designated North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the hermit state to a list that includes Iran, Sudan and Syria. North Korea was previously added to the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1988 and removed from it in 2008 amid nuclear negotiations spearheaded by former President George W. Bush.


The new sanctions imposed by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control include one Chinese individual, 13 entities and 20 boats. The sanctions include three Chinese companies that Treasury said have exported about $650 million worth of goods to North Korea and $100 million from the country. These goods have included notebook computers, anthracite coal, iron, lead and other products, Treasury said.

“These designations include companies that have engaged in trade with North Korea cumulatively worth hundreds of millions of dollars," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. "We are also sanctioning the shipping and transportation companies, and their vessels, that facilitate North Korea’s trade and its deceptive maneuvers.”

Treasury also sanctioned Sun Sidong, a Chinese national, and his company Dandong Dongyuan Industrial Co.

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Sun and Dongyuan were responsible for exporting more than $28 million worth of goods to North Korea over several years, including items associated with nuclear reactors, Treasury said. Dongyuan has also been associated with front companies for North Korean organizations involved in developing weapons of mass destruction, Treasury said.

In September, North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, detonating a warhead seven times larger than the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. In July, North Korea appeared to successfully test its first intercontinental ballistic missiles. It remains unclear whether the regime has successfully miniaturized a warhead small enough to fit atop one of its ballistic missiles.

But the developments indicate that North Korea in 2018 may be able to threaten the continental United States with a nuclear weapon, according to a Nov. 6 report by the Congressional Research Service. Further, the U.S. may be running out of time for a preemptive strike on North Korea without the threat of nuclear retaliation, CRS said.

In September, Treasury imposed sanctions on eight North Korean banks and 26 individuals. That followed executive orders Trump signed to target people with ties to North Korea. Also in September, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved sanctions on North Korea.

Even excluding nuclear weapons, war with North Korea would have grave consequences. Within the first hours of military action, North Korean artillery in the demilitarized zone could kill tens of thousands in South Korea, CRS said. There are 28,500 U.S. troops and their families currently stationed in South Korea.