The United States is expected to announce new sanctions against North Korea soon.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley made the confirmation Monday during a daily press briefing, saying that although there have been no new updates on the issue of North Korea sanctions, there soon will be.

Crowley said he believes the announcement of the sanctions is being delayed due to U.S. bureaucracy and not because of Aijalon Gomes, who is an American citizen being detained in the North for illegally entering the communist state.

According to a diplomatic source in Washington, the announcement of new sanctions is being delayed because the U.S. is in the process of drawing up a sanctions list.