Briefing Skipper: North Korea, Sri Lanka, Russian cocaine, Osama bin Laden

In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. These are the highlights of Wednesday’s briefing by spokesman P.J. Crowley:

• "Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton announced today a series of measures to increase U.S. ability to prevent North Korea’s proliferation, to halt the illicit activities that help fund its weapons programs and to discourage further provocative activities," Crowley said. "These new country-specific sanctions are aimed at North Korea’s sale or procurement of arms and related materiel and procurement of luxury goods, as well as other illicit activities."
• The new sanctions are not targeted at the North Korea people, but are aimed at keeping expensive luxury items out of regime hands. Also, add State and Treasury department designations to all sorts of international firms that may be supporting North Korean proliferation. State will also work with key countries to persuade them to stop doing business with North Korean trading firms and stop allowing North Korea companies to use their banks. Bob Einhorn is in charge of enforcing the new measures. What about the existing sanctions? "North Korean entities are adapting to the existing actions that we have been taking," Crowley said.
• There will be more punitive measures on North Korea coming, Crowley warned. How can Pyongyang get out from under? "North Korea has to fundamentally change its approach to the world and policies," Crowley said, "We are going to look at a combination of ways to send an unmistakable message, have an impact in Pyongyang, and see how they respond."
• So does that mean we’re no longer waiting for the Chinese to do something about the situation? Maybe not. "China obviously has a big role to play in this," Crowley said. Clinton will meet with the Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi Thursday. He might be miffed that State did not consult with Beijing before announcing the new sanctions. "So I can’t say that we consulted with China prior to making this specific announcement. It was within our prerogative to do," Crowley said.
• Assistant Secretary Bob Blake was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday. He reviewed the bilateral relationship with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris, met with a number of opposition political parties and held roundtables with representatives of civil society and the business community. "His key message was simply to continue reconciliation as a core element of achieving lasting peace in Sri Lanka," said Crowley.
• Crowley deferred questions on the arrest of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko to the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Yaroshenko was picked up by U.S. agents in Liberia in May and extradited back to New York for allegedly dealing in "thousand-kilogram quantities of cocaine." Russia claims that violated the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the 1964 bilateral consular convention.
• The State Department apparently doesn’t know where Osama bin Laden is, and Crowley tried to clarify Clinton’s statements in Pakistan that she believes someone in the Pakistani government does. "I think what the secretary was saying was that it’s our belief that somewhere within the government there is this kind of knowledge, and we would hope that, if that knowledge is available, we can find out and take appropriate action," he said. "But I can’t sit here and say that we today know where bin Laden is. I think we believe that he remains in the tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan."