ECONOMIC PLEDGE
Korea: sceptics fear sanctions erosion
North Korea is believed to have earned hundreds of millions of dollars trading in banned minerals and weapons
A pledge by the leaders of North and South Korea to foster economic ties has heightened worries among sceptics that Seoul’s push to revive nuclear talks could undermine the sanction regime credited with bringing Pyongyang to the negotiating table. Speaking at a joint news conference in Pyongyang on Wednesday, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said he and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to the normalisation of the Kaesong joint border industrial park and tours to North Korea’s Mount Kumgang. The two projects, which were suspended amid tensions between the rivals under Moon’s two conservative predecessors, had been lucrative sources of cash for the impoverished North. Moon said the steps were part of an agreement to turn the Korean peninsula into a "land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats". However, his visit was criticised by US Senator Lindsey Graham. He said it risked undermining the US policy of "maximum pressure" aimed at leaving Pyongyang little choice...
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