US imposes new economic sanctions against North Korea

President Donald Trump has warned North Korea that any U.S. military option would be devastating for Pyongyang, but said the use of force was not Washington's first option to deal with the North's ballistic and nuclear weapons program. 

Trump said at a White House news conference yesterday that US is totally prepared for military action which is not a preferred option. The strong reaction from the US president came a day after North Korea said that it was ready to defend itself by shooting down US bombers.

North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho, who was in New York early this week, had accused Trump of declaring war against his



country.

Meanwhile, United States has imposed sanctions on eight North Korean banks and 26 bank executives, ratcheting up pressure on the country amid increasingly bellicose exchanges with Pyongyang over its nuclear programme. 

On Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement in Washington that this further advances our strategy to fully isolate North Korea in order to achieve our broader objectives of a peaceful and denuclearized Korean peninsula. 

All property and interest of the designated companies and individuals in the US are blocked by the sanctions.