U.S. sanctions aimed at making N. Korea productive at talks: Pentagon

A senior U.S. defense official says Washington's sanctions on North Korea is intended to encourage the regime to engage in dialogue,... with a mindset on being productive to find solutions.
Eum Ji-young tells us more.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, Randall Schriver,... said U.S. sanctions on North Korea are mostly intended to encourage dialogue in a way that ensures productive discussions.
Speaking at the Jamestown Foundation's annual China defense and security conference on Tuesday,... Schriver stressed the importance of all countries that are able,... to enforce sanctions on the North.
"We've been doing our part to try to maintain pressure on Pyeongyang through the enforcement of sanctions so that they will come to the table with a particular mindset where they want to be productive, where they want to reach solutions with us."
He also noted how China has shown "some slippage" in its enforcement of sanctions.
"What we are seeing from China right now unfortunately is some slippage in the enforcement of sanctions, particularly when it comes to ship-to-ship transfers happening in their territorial waters."
He said the Chinese shoulder a lot of responsibility when it comes to North Korea evading sanctions,... despite publicly backing the most recent UN sanctions on the regime.
Schriver added that China should admit to the fact... that it has been an important partner to North Korea in helping Pyeongyang build modern infrastructure.
He stressed that Beijing can do much better in pressuring Pyeongyang to bring the regime back to the negotiating table.
Regarding the working-level talks in Sweden earlier this month,... he said that it was an attempt to rebuild diplomacy in the Korean Peninsula.
Eum Ji-young, Arirang News.