US Defence Secretary James Mattis has told American troops to be prepared for war as the United Nations voted to pass the toughest-ever sanctions on North Korea..
US Defence Secretary James Mattis has told American troops to be prepared for war as the United Nations voted to pass the toughest-ever sanctions on North Korea.
The new UN sanctions, adopted on Friday by a vote of 15-0, seeks to ban nearly 90 per cent of refined petroleum exports to North Korea and demands the repatriation in two years of some 100,000 North Korean labourers who work abroad.
China and Russia joined in the vote, but only after the Trump administration agreed to soften a couple of provisions.
Ms Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the UN, thanked the other UN Security Council members – especially China – for coming together on the resolution and said further North Korean defiance would “invite further punishment and isolation”.
The sanctions are the latest efforts to force the nuclear-armed country into negotiations over its nuclear programme.
Analysts say the US is fast running out of options. Even the Central Intelligence Agency has said no amount of economic sanctions will force the North to give up its nuclear arsenal.
“If the game plan is to use sanctions as the last non-military policy tool to induce North Korea’s return to the denuclearisation table, we may quickly find Washington prioritising military options,” Mr John Park, director of the Korea Working Group at Harvard Kennedy School, told Reuters.
