The controversial draft is likely to get pushback from Russia and China.
The United States is seeking United Nations authorization to use military force to board and seize North Korean smuggling vessels on the high seas, dramatically escalating the Trump administration’s nuclear standoff with the Hermit Kingdom, according to a draft resolution obtained by Foreign Policy.
The push for a green light for military action was included in a sweeping U. S. draft Security Council resolution that would ban Pyongyang’s export of oil, liquid gas, and textiles, and forbid the employment of North Korean laborers, who are required to send home a big chunk of their earnings. The draft would also hit North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, his government, and the ruling Worker’s Party, with sanctions.
The United State’s latest diplomatic gambit comes just days after North Korea on September 3 detonated its sixth, and by far its most powerful, nuclear explosion, triggering widespread expressions of condemnation from Beijing to Moscow and Washington, D. C. In response, the Trump administration is looking to target key economic sectors that contribute to pouring up to $3 billion-a-year in revenue into the North Korean economy — money that U. S. policy-makers believe is funding its nuclear weapons program.
The initiative is likely to face tough pushback from Russia and China, who have both been pressing the administration to resolve its difference with Pyongyang through negotiations. In a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Vladivostok, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said that his government firmly opposes the imposition of an oil embargo on North Korea.
