Facilitating progress in talks of North Korean denuclearization and hopes to reignite a June 12 summit, the U.S. has decided to delay Tuesday's plans to impose tougher sanctions on Kim Jong Un's regime, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Ramped-up sanctions were set to be announced as soon as Tuesday, but they have been delayed indefinitely amid diplomatic progress this weekend, a U.S. official told the Journal.
U.S. and North Korean delegations will resume talks Tuesday, according to the report.
After President Donald Trump canceled the June 12 summit with Kim last week, the U.S. Treasury Department readied "nearly three-dozen sanction targets, including Russian and Chinese entities, according to two administration officials," per the report.
The targets were intended to advance the "maximum pressure" campaign on North Korea's economy, and there are still more ways to cut off overseas cash to the rogue regime. Experts point to countries resistant to the U.S. sanctions as helping keep Kim's $40 billion economy going, the Journal reported.
"The goal here is to achieve maximum pressure," a senior administration official told the Journal. "We're still short of that."
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