THE UNILATERALIST IN THE OVAL:

Report: US to put its own sanctions on NKorea (JAE-SOON CHANG, 6/05/09, AP)

The United States will impose its own financial sanctions on North Korea apart from punishments that the U.N. has been considering for Pyongyang's latest nuclear test, a news report said Friday.

The U.S. sanctions call for blacklisting foreign financial institutions that help the North launder money and conduct other dubious deals, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg briefed the South Korean president on the new sanctions at a meeting Thursday, the mass-market paper said, citing an unidentified official at the presidential office. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul could not confirm the report.