US announces new sanctions against North Korea

Speaking at a news conference in Seoul, Mrs Clinton said the measures would increase Washington's ability to "prevent North Korea's proliferation, to halt their illicit activities that help fund their weapons programmes, and to discourage further provocative actions".

She said the sanctions were not directed at the North Korean people but at the "misguided and malign priorities of their government".

The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says few details were given about how the sanctions would work, but that they were clearly intended as punishment for the alleged attack on the ship.

Mrs Clinton said she expected North Korea to "take certain steps that would acknowledge their responsibility" for the incident and to move towards denuclearisation.

"They know very well that they made commitments over the last years to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula which they have reneged on and which we expect them to once again adhere to," she told reporters.

"We are looking for irreversible denuclearisation."

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