OPINION | These new, increasingly comprehensive sanctions could lead Pyongyang to rethink its nuclear program.
Now that the horrific noise from the absurd Trump-Kim trading of nuclear threats has died down, welcome to the real U. S. policy toward North Korea. It is, as seen from this week’s U. S.-South Korea military exercises, a mix of strengthened deterrence and coercive diplomacy. It is decidedly NOT the instant gratification that Trump would like.
The coercive dimension of the policy was highlighted on Tuesday by the U. S. Treasury announcement of ”secondary sanctions” against Chinese and Russian banks and businesses helping North Korea in violation of U. N. Security Council sanctions.
The flip side of this political strategy was evident in Secretary of State Tillerson’s hopeful comments to reporters explaining that there have been no North Korean missile or nuclear tests since the last round of U. N. Security Council sanctions “…and that perhaps we are seeing our pathway to sometime in the near future having some dialogue.”
Among those targeted by Treasury were three Chinese coal companies importing more than $500 million; Dandong Rich Earth Trading, a Chinese firm charged with importing rare metals from North Korea and Mingzheng International Trading, a China and Hong Kong-based bank that allegedly provides financial services for Foreign Trade Bank, the main North Korean foreign exchange bank.
Treasury officials also pointed out that one of the sanctioned firms, Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Metals, helped to procure nuclear and missile components for North Korea with some of its profits.
Why is this important? There are two related aspects of U. S. efforts to heighten pressure on North Korea: cutting off access to international finance and disrupting its procurement efforts. Pyongyang has a de facto cash economy, tolerating markets (as long as Kim and associates get their take) since their economic system broke down during the mass famine of the 1990s. If we can remove hard currency, Kim’s ability to placate the elite in the Worker’s Party, state bureaucracy and military could be greatly diminished.
