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| A view from the top of a two-story building in Fagatogo village overlooking the port of Pago Pago, as the North Korean cargo ship, Wise Honest, docks at the main docking section, Saturday, in Pago Pago, American Samoa. AP-Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
The United States should release a seized North Korean cargo vessel immediately, the North's foreign ministry said Tuesday, calling it an "illicit act of robbery."
The Wise Honest bulker arrived at the port of Pago Pago, American Samoa, last week after it had been detained for more than a year in Indonesia since April last year. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice said the U.S. seized the North Korean bulk carrier for violating United Nations Security Council resolutions by illicitly shipping coal from North Korea and delivering heavy machinery to the North.
North Korea linked the seizure of the ship to the stalemated nuclear dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.
"The latest act is an extension of Washington's ‘maximum pressure' calculation method under which the country is trying to force the North into submission," the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted its foreign ministry spokesman as saying.
The spokesman added Pyongyang would pay sharp attention to Washington's upcoming gestures.
"The U.S. will have to send back the North's vessel without further delay," the North Korean official was quoted as saying.
The state-run news agency called Washington's recent move complete misbehavior breaking the "fundamental spirit" of the June 12 summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The seizure of the vessel is expected to impact the ongoing deadlock in talks between Washington and Pyongyang on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Following the failure of the Hanoi summit between Trump and Kim in February, the two have failed to revive their dialogue.
In an apparent show of complaint, the North test-launched short-range missiles twice this month.
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