The Ministry of Foreign Affairs late on Friday issued a statement reiterating that the government would work closely with the international community to sanction North Korea, while keeping close contacts with Washington on the matter.
The statement followed the announcement of new sanctions imposed by the US against entities linked to North Korea, including a Taiwanese national and two companies.
US President Donald Trump announced during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference that the US Department of the Treasury would impose the largest-ever sanctions package against North Korea in a bid to force Pyongyang to give up its ambitions of developing nuclear weapons and to ensure regional and global security.
Photo: Lu Chun-wei, Taipei Times
Following Trump’s announcement, the department released a list of one person, 27 companies and 28 ships from Taiwan, North Korea, China, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The sole individual facing sanctions was identified as Taiwanese Tsang Yung-yuan (張永源).
“Tsang has coordinated North Korean coal exports with a Russia-based North Korean broker, and he has a history of other sanctions evasion activities,” the department said in a statement.
The ministry said that as a member of the international community, the Republic of China has made significant efforts in the past few months to implement sanctions against North Korea.
It called on people in Taiwan to not breach any sanctions imposed by the UN against Pyongyang by conducting financial or commercial activities, warning that they would face punishment.
Taiwan will continue to honor its commitment to apply diplomatic and economic pressure on Pyongyang, the ministry said, adding that it hoped the nation would serve as a model in the international community.
Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) yesterday said prosecutors have launched an investigation into Tsang and the two Taiwanese firms about their actions that allegedly breached international sanctions against North Korea.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most