A North Korea expert says…
A North Korea expert says that former President Barack Obama was “flat out wrong” when he said that the United States applied all the sanctions it possibly could on North Korea.
Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D. C., told TheBlaze on Friday that the Obama administration was “pulling their punches” when it came to dealing with North Korea.
The statement came on the same day that President Donald Trump met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in for the second day in a row. It was Jae-in’s first visit to the U. S. since becoming South Korea’s leader in May. During a White House state dinner on Thursday night and subsequent White House meeting on Friday, the two talked about North Korea’s nuclear missile capabilities and China’s potential leverage in persuading Kim Jong Un to denuclearize his country. Trump also addressed what he sees a trade imbalance between the U. S. and South Korea.
Klingner specifically addressed talks about Kim Jong Un, saying that when it comes to his nuclear weapons, “we’ re in it for the long haul.” Klingner faulted the previous administration for its “strategic patience” policy toward North Korea, instead of imposing more sanctions.
“Some people have said, ‘Well, sanctions don’ t work. Let’s try something new. Let’s try diplomacy, ‘” Klingner told TheBlaze.
The North Korea expert called that assertion “an error on a number of different parts.” Klingner pointed out that since 1985, there have been eight international nuclear arms agreements involving the U. S. and North Korea. Four of those agreements aimed to prevent North Korea from obtaining nuclear weapons in the first place. When those didn’ t work, another four agreements tried to get the country to give up the weapons.
“That also failed, ” Klingner said.
In addition to these multiple agreements, none of which North Korea has upheld, Klingner said that “South Korea has had 240 agreements with North Korea, obviously not all nuclear, designed to induce political and economic reform and moderate behavior.”
As Klingner pointed out, all of these well-intentioned efforts failed to meet their respective goals.
The Heritage Foundation expert then stressed that when it comes to sanctions, “there’s still much we can do.”
“ [T] here is a misperception by many that we’ ve maxed out, including President Obama when he said that North Korea was the most heavily sanctioned, most cut-off nation on Earth, ” Klingner said.
But, Klingner added, Obama was just “flat out wrong” in saying that.
