In this photo captured from North Korea's Korean Central Television report, Wednesday, a missile which North Korea claims to be a hypersonic one is set for test launch a day earlier. The launch site was known as Jagang Province. Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

The U.S. has slapped its own sanctions on North Korea following the North's latest missile launches and encouraged other countries to join the move, showing that Washington is now veering toward an "action for action" approach. This shift is expected to leave no room for South Korea's outgoing Moon Jae-in government to arbitrate U.S.-North Korea relations.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, tweeted, Wednesday, that the U.S. was "proposing U.N. sanctions following North Korea's six ballistic missile launches since September 2021, each of which were in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions."

The proposal came hours after the U.S. Department of Treasury slapped its own sanctions on six North Koreans, one Russian and one entity, accusing them of procuring goods for the North's "weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs." The sanctions came just two days after the North tested what it claims was a hypersonic missile.

"These designations convey our serious and ongoing concern about the DPRK's continued proliferation activities and those who support it," U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement. "The United States will use every appropriate tool to address the DPRK's WMD and ballistic missile programs, which constitute a serious threat to international peace and security and undermine the global nonproliferation regime."

The DPRK is an acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.