SEOUL (NYTIMES, REUTERS) - When North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, visited a hydroelectric dam under construction last month, he reportedly "flew into a rage" after learning why the dam was still unfinished after 17 years of work.

The dam, central to Kim's efforts to alleviate his country's chronic power shortages, suffered from a lack of workers, equipment and materials, Kim is said to have found, and he learned that officials overseeing the project had not even visited the construction site.

"What makes me angrier is that these officials will never fail to miss the opportunity to show their shameless faces and take credit when a ceremony is held to mark the completion of a power plant," Kim was quoted by the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying. "I am speechless."

During a visit to the Myohyangsan Medical Appliances Factory in North Phyongan province, north-east of the capital Pyongyang, Kim strongly condemned the lack of visible modernisation at the factory, KCNA said on Tuesday (Aug 21). In another site inspection to Samjiyon, a northern county near China, Kim criticised poor workmanship on a railway to the border with China to be completed next year, calling for even roadbeds, accident-free construction and increased electricity production, according to a KCNA report on Sunday.

The reports in the North Korean state news media about Kim's anger were a jarring contrast to their typical portrayals of such visits, which show Kim being mobbed by his adoring subjects.

Since late June, Kim has devoted almost all of his public activities to visiting factories, farms and construction sites rather than the military units and weapons test sites that he frequented last year. And instead of boasting of his country's military prowess, he is lashing out at poor management at the sites he visits, highlighting his intense focus on fixing his economy.

Kim's message is directed as much to the United States as to his people, experts in North Korean politics said, since his pledge to deliver economic prosperity depends on persuading Washington to ease damaging international sanctions.

Over the weekend, Kim said his people were engaged in "a do-or-die struggle" against "brigandish sanctions," which he said caused "a serious setback" to his economy.

"What's clear is that Kim Jong Un is desperate to ease sanctions and find his own ways of boosting production and improving the lives of his people," said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. "At the same time, he is shifting the blame to his underlings by criticising lazy officials."

By showing himself focused on the economy, rather than on weapons programmes, Kim may be signalling that he is willing to negotiate away his nuclear weapons if Washington offers the right incentives, Koh said.

But deep skepticism persists that Kim will ever give them up or that the United States will provide the kind of rewards, like a peace treaty ending the Korean War, that the North demands.

When Kim met President Donald Trump in Singapore in June, the two agreed to build "new" relations and work toward the "complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula." But their agreement lacked details and frustrations have since mounted on both sides over the lack of progress in carrying out the summit deal, dimming North Korea's hopes for sanctions relief and Washington's desire for rapid denuclearisation of the North.

Washington has so far cancelled its joint military exercises with South Korea to help encourage North Korea to denuclearise. But it has refused to ease sanctions, demanding that the country first move quickly towards denuclearisation, initially by declaring all of its nuclear assets.

North Korea has made some moves to placate Washington, suspending its nuclear and missile tests, demolishing its underground nuclear test site and tearing down a missile engine test site. But before it moves any further, it wants Washington to declare an end to the Korean War, setting the stage for a formal peace treaty to replace the armistice that halted the war in 1953.

The logjam between North Korea and the United States is hampering South Korea's efforts to expand economic and other ties with the North. The South's president, Moon Jae-in, is scheduled to meet next month with Kim in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

Last Wednesday, he revealed a bold vision for economic cooperation with North Korea, including building joint economic zones along the border and linking the nations' railways, provided that the North starts denuclearising.

In pushing economic development, Kim has a lot at stake as he seeks to cement his power over a country that suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s and has only recently seen the emergence of a nascent, aspirational middle class.

"North Koreans are now as materialistic, greedy and unsatisfied as their comrades in the Soviet Union and East Germany once were, and as are most of us in the West," wrote Rüdiger Frank, a North Korea expert at the University of Vienna.

"North Korea has begun playing the capitalists' game and it has gone much further than most European socialist countries ever went."

In 2012, in his first public speech as North Korean leader, Kim pledged that his people would "never have to tighten their belt again."

The next year, he supplanted his father and predecessor Kim Jong Il's "military-first" policy with his byungjin, or parallel advance, approach of building a nuclear arsenal and the country's economy simultaneously.

As he rapidly built up North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes, Kim also modified its socialist economy by allowing more than 400 markets, supplementing the state rations and government-run stores that used to be his people's sole sources of goods.

He also granted more autonomy to factories and collective farms.

But the sanctions over his weapons programmes have derailed recent economic progress. While North Korea's economy grew an average 1.77 per cent annually between 2012 and 2015, thanks largely to market activities, according to Kim Byung-yeon, a professor of economics at Seoul National University, in 2017 it contracted at its sharpest rate in two decades - shrinking 3.5 per cent, according to the South Korean Central Bank.

In his New Year's Day speech, Kim said, "I spent the past year feeling anxious and remorseful for the lack of my ability."

In steering the country from nuclear brinkmanship to diplomacy, he hopes to build trade ties and ease the pressure of sanctions. Since March, in addition to meeting Trump, he has met President Xi Jinping of China three times and Moon of South Korea twice.

In April, he announced an end to his byungjin policy, explaining that he had completed one of the two parallel goals: building a nuclear arsenal. Now, he said, North Korea would focus all national resources on rebuilding the economy.

Analysts in South Korea have since wondered: Does that mean that Kim is willing to bargain away his nuclear missiles in exchange for economic and security concessions from the United States and its allies? And is the Trump administration willing to test Kim's intentions by engaging him with a give-and-take?

"What's clear is that the pieces of the puzzle won't come into place until we see improvements in relations between the United States and North Korea and the easing and lifting of sanctions," said Hwang Jae-jun, a North Korea specialist at the Sejong Institute, a research think tank in South Korea.

In North Korea, the top leader uses his heavily publicised "field guidance" trips - like the visit to the troubled dam - to establish his priorities. When Kim was expediting his nuclear and missile programmes last year, he visited weapons facilities and missile test sites, and hosted banquets for weapons engineers.

In contrast, almost all of the 30 field guidance trips Kim has made since late June were to factories, farms and construction sites. On July 17, the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's main newspaper, published 12 pages, double its normal size, devoting the first nine pages to pictures and articles about Kim's visits to factories and farms.

Last week, North Korean media published photos of Kim stripped down to an undershirt and sweating profusely while visiting a fish-pickling factory during the country's wilting heat wave. (North Korean leaders often conduct their field trips during extreme weather to show their dedication, foreign analysts have noted.)

Despite such propaganda efforts, however, Kim may be more vulnerable to economic crises than his predecessors, experts like Frank say, as outside goods and information have begun flowing into North Korea - thanks partly to Kim's own reforms.</s>In an interview with Reuters, Trump, who held a landmark summit with Kim on June 12, said he believed North Korea had taken specific steps toward denuclearization, despite widespread doubts about Kim's willingness to abandon his arsenal.

While insisting that "a lot of good things are happening" with North Korea, Trump complained that China was not helping as much as it had in the past because of its trade dispute with the United States.

Trump, who faced the North Korean challenge as soon as he took office in January 2017, said he had only been working on the North Korean issue for three months whereas his predecessors had been working on it for 30 years.

"I stopped (North Korea's) nuclear testing. I stopped (North Korea's) missile testing. Japan is thrilled. What's going to happen? Who knows? We're going to see," he said.

At their summit in Singapore, Kim agreed in broad terms to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula but North Korea has given no indication it is willing to give up its weapons unilaterally as the Trump administration has demanded.

Trump has hailed the Singapore summit as a success and went as far as saying North Korea no longer posed a nuclear threat.

South Korea's presidential Blue House said on Tuesday Trump's mention of the possibility of another summit with Kim could be a sign of progress in their relations.

"We think it is part of a process for achieving the two leaders' resolve for the denuclearisation and peace of the Korean peninsula," spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters.

Kim Jong Un and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in agreed at their summit in April to push to declare an official end to the 1950-53 Korean War together with the United States.

Seoul officials see the U.N. General Assembly in New York next month as a desirable venue for the declaration but said they are flexible about its formality.

"We hope that North Korea-U.S. relations would make rapid progress and bear fruit," the spokesman Kim said.

The Washington-based think tank 38 North reported last month that satellite images indicated North Korea had begun dismantling key facilities at a site used to develop engines for ballistic missiles, in a first step toward fulfilling a pledge U.S. officials say he made to Trump at the summit.

However, several members of the U.S. negotiating team, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they had seen no progress toward denuclearization and no sign that North Korea was prepared to negotiate seriously until the United States promised relief from sanctions in return.

Last month Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a Senate committee hearing that North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs, and a U.S. official said U.S. spy satellites detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced missiles capable of reaching the United States.

In the interview, Trump credited his "great chemistry" with Kim for easing a nuclear standoff that last year raised fears of a new Korean war.

"I like him. He likes me," he said. "There's no ballistic missiles going up, there's a lot of silence ... I have very good personal relations with Chairman Kim, and I think that's what holds it together."

Asked whether another meeting with Kim was on the horizon, Trump said: "It's most likely we will, but I just don't want to comment." But he offered no details on the timing or venue.

Critics say Trump made too many concessions to Kim by agreeing to hold the summit in the first place and then suspending joint U.S.-South Korea military drills while gaining little in return.

Asked whether North Korea had taken specific steps to denuclearize other than blowing up its main nuclear bomb test site ahead of the summit, Trump: "I do believe they have." But he did not elaborate.

He also pointed to North Korea's pre-summit handover of three American detainees.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday announced sanctions on two Russian shipping companies and six vessels it said were involved in the transfer of refined petroleum products to North Korean vessels in violation of United Nations restrictions.

The Russian flag flies over the Embassy of Russia in Washington, U.S., August 6, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called the sanctions as well as other U.S. steps over alleged hacking, groundless, and promised a response.

The U.S. Treasury identified the shipping firms as Vladivostok-based shipping companies Primorye Maritime Logistics Co Ltd (Primorye) and Gudzon Shipping Co LLC (Gudzon). It also named six Russian-flagged vessels: Bella, Bogatyr, Neptun, Partizan, Patriot and Sevastopol.

“Ship-to-ship transfers with North Korea-flagged vessels from Russia or elsewhere of any goods being supplied, sold, or transferred to or from (North Korea) are prohibited under the U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea and are sanctionable under U.S. law,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

“Consequences for violating these sanctions will remain in place until we have achieved the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea,” Mnuchin added.

The United States has been pressuring North Korea via sanctions to give up its nuclear weapons program.

The Treasury statement said Russian ship Patriot conducted two ship-to-ship transfers of oil in early 2018 - 1,500 tons to the North Korea-flagged Chong Rim 2 and 2,000 tons to the North Korea-flagged Chon Ma San.

It said the buyer was the Taesong Bank, a North Korean entity subordinate to the Workers’ Party of Korea Office 39, “which engages in illicit economic activities for North Korean leadership.”

Taesong Bank has already been slapped with both U.N. and U.S. sanctions.

In a statement published on the Russian Foreign Ministry website, Ryabkov said the latest sanctions were introduced under a “false pretense.”

Tuesday’s announcement came just days after Washington imposed sanctions on a Russian port service agency as well as Chinese companies for aiding North Korean ships and selling alcohol and tobacco to Pyongyang in breach of U.S. sanctions.

After last week’s announcement, Russia said the United States had acted without evidence on the basis of groundless accusations and said it was working on retaliatory measures.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday announced sanctions on two Russian shipping companies and six vessels it said were involved in the transfer of refined petroleum products to North Korean vessels in violation of U.N. restrictions.

The U.S. Treasury identified the firms as Vladivostok-based shipping companies Primorye Maritime Logistics Co Ltd (Primorye) and Gudzon Shipping Co LLC (Gudzon).

It also named six Russian-flagged vessels: Bella, Bogatyr, Neptun, Partizan, Patriot and Sevastopol.

“Ship-to-ship transfers with North Korea-flagged vessels from Russia or elsewhere of any goods being supplied, sold, or transferred to or from (North Korea) are prohibited under the U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea and are sanctionable under U.S. law,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

“Consequences for violating these sanctions will remain in place until we have achieved the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea.”

The United States has been pressuring North Korea via sanctions to give up its nuclear weapons program.

Tuesday’s announcement came just days after Washington imposed sanctions on a Russian port service agency and Chinese companies for aiding North Korean ships and selling alcohol and tobacco to Pyongyang in breach of U.S. sanctions.

After last week’s announcement, Russia said the United States had acted without evidence on the basis of groundless accusations when imposing sanctions on the Russian company. It said it was working on retaliatory measures.</s>The U.S. is sanctioning two Russian shipping companies suspected of transferring petroleum products to North Korean vessels in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The Treasury Department said that earlier this year, one vessel linked to the Russian companies transferred 3,500 tons of oil to ships flying the North Korea flag.

The Treasury said the buyer was North Korea’s Taesong Bank. The bank is linked to the Workers’ Party of Korea Office 39, which engages in illicit economic activities for North Korean leaders.

The sanctions seek to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear program. They block the two Russian shipping companies’ assets in the U.S. and ban Americans from dealing with them.

Tuesday’s action targeted Primorye Maritime Logistics Co. and Gudzon Shipping Co., based in the city of Vladivostok, and six of their vessels.</s>The Trump administration Tuesday slapped new sanctions on Russian shipping companies and vessels for transporting oil to North Korea in violation of United Nation’s prohibitions.

The move reinforced the administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign to force North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

The Russian vessels were designated or black-listed for breaking the sanctions by transferring oil to ships from the rough regime, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.

“Ship-to-ship transfers with North Korea-flagged vessels from Russia or elsewhere of any goods being supplied, sold, or transferred to or from the DPRK are prohibited under the U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea and are sanctionable under U.S. law,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “Consequences for violating these sanctions will remain in place until we have achieved the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea.”

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated two Russian shipping companies and six Russian vessels.</s>The Latest on Russia sanctions (all times local):

The U.S. is sanctioning two Russian shipping companies suspected of transferring petroleum products to North Korean vessels in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Treasury said that earlier this year, one vessel linked to the Russian companies transferred 3,500 tons of oil to ships flying the North Korea flag.

Treasury said the buyer was North Korea's Taesong Bank. The bank is linked to the Workers' Party of Korea Office 39, which engages in illicit economic activities for North Korean leaders.

The sanctions seek to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear program. They block the two Russian shipping companies' assets in the U.S. and ban Americans from dealing with them.

Tuesday's action targeted Primorye Maritime Logistics Co. and Gudzon Shipping Co., based in the city of Vladivostok, and six of their vessels.

Britain wants the European Union to ensure its sanctions on Russia are sufficiently comprehensive in response to accusations Moscow poisoned a former Russian spy in Britain, using a nerve agent.

In his first speech in the U.S. as Britain's foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt was expected Tuesday to call on the EU and United States to respond to Russia with "one voice." He says the EU should review its sanctions and make sure "we truly stand shoulder to shoulder with the U.S."

"Of course we must engage with Moscow, but we must also be blunt: Russia's foreign policy under President (Vladimir) Putin has made the world a more dangerous place," Hunt said, according to excerpts of the speech released by the British Embassy.

Hunt's speech at the U.S. Institute of Peace comes just weeks after President Donald Trump rattled European allies during a two-day NATO summit in Brussels where he criticized defense spending and, at one point, questioned the value of the military alliance.

Trump later met with Putin, and cast doubt on U.S. intelligence that Russia tried to sway voters in the 2016 election. He later said he misspoke.

Russia is accused by Britain of illegally using a military-grade nerve agent in an attempted assassination of a former spy and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury earlier this year. Both eventually recovered. The Kremlin denies involvement.

This month, the Trump administration announced new export restrictions on Russia in response to the poisoning. The move was the latest in a slew of U.S. sanctions on Russia for what Washington says are human rights abuses, meddling in the U.S. election and military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.</s>The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on two Russian individuals, three companies and six Russian-flagged ships over alleged business ties with North Korea - in violation of international sanctions.according to a release published on the Treasury website on Tuesday.The individuals added to the sanctions list are Anton Nagibin, who was included over his ties to the Saint-Petersburg-based design and manufacture company DiveTechnoService, and Marina Tsareva over her connection to the same firm as well as to the corporation Vela-Marine.The updated list also includes Russian cargo ship operator Gudzon Shipping, Primorye Maritime Logistics, Vela-Marine and a Slovakian firm, Lacno.The new sanctions target six Russian-flagged ships, including Bella, Bogatyr, Neptun, Patriot, Partizan, and Sevastopol over their alleged ties to the sanctioned shipping firm Gudzon.Earlier this month, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that Moscow is working on retaliatory measures against the broadening sanctions list of the US.On August 15, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against Russia-based Profinet and its director general. According to the US administration, the company facilitated illicit shipments and provided revenue streams to North Korea vessels. At the beginning of the month, Washington also sanctioned Russia's Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank over violations of UN bans pertaining to Pyongyang.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Russia sanctions (all times local):

The U.S. is sanctioning two Russian shipping companies suspected of transferring petroleum products to North Korean vessels in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Treasury said that earlier this year, one vessel linked to the Russian companies transferred 3,500 tons of oil to ships flying the North Korea flag.

Treasury said the buyer was North Korea's Taesong Bank. The bank is linked to the Workers' Party of Korea Office 39, which engages in illicit economic activities for North Korean leaders.

The sanctions seek to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear program. They block the two Russian shipping companies' assets in the U.S. and ban Americans from dealing with them.

Tuesday's action targeted Primorye Maritime Logistics Co. and Gudzon Shipping Co., based in the city of Vladivostok, and six of their vessels.

Britain wants the European Union to ensure its sanctions on Russia are sufficiently comprehensive in response to accusations Moscow poisoned a former Russian spy in Britain, using a nerve agent.

In advance excerpts from his first speech in the U.S. as the U.K.'s foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt says Russia's foreign policy under President Vladimir Putin "has made the world a more dangerous place." He says the EU should review its sanctions and make sure "we truly stand shoulder to shoulder with the U.S."

Hunt is speaking Tuesday morning at the U.S. Institute of Peace. The British Embassy previewed his speech on Monday.

Earlier this month the Trump administration announced new export restrictions on Russia in response to the poisoning.</s>MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday that new U.S. sanctions introduced over alleged hacking and illegal oil products supply to North Korea were groundless, promising a response from Moscow.

In a statement, published on the ministry website, he also said the sanctions were introduced under a “false pretence”.

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on two Russians, one Russian company and one Slovakian firm for what Washington said were their actions to help another Russian company avoid sanctions over the country’s malicious cyber-related activities.

It also announced sanctions on two Russian shipping companies and six vessels it said were involved in the transfer of refined petroleum products to North Korean vessels in violation of U.N. restrictions.
The United States imposes sanctions on two Russian shipping companies and six vessels for involvement in oil transfer to North Korea.