The US on Tuesday imposed sanctions on eight North Korean banks and 26 bank executives, ratcheting up pressure on the country amid increasingly bellicose exchanges with Pyongyang over its nuclear program.

"This further advances our strategy to fully isolate North Korea in order to achieve our broader objectives of a peaceful and denuclearized Korean peninsula," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

All property and interest of the designated companies and individuals in the US are blocked by the sanctions.

Source: AFP