Trump has threatened to cut off trade with countries that deal with North Korea
The past few months have seen the coming of age of North Korea’s nuclear weapons capability. For most of the last 20 years, the international community has been struggling to stop this from happening. A sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3 — of what was — followed July’s of an intercontinental ballistic missile with the capability to hit the U. S. The same month, the U. S. intelligence community North Korea’s arsenal consists of “up to 60” weapons, and that the country had successfully manufactured a compact warhead capable of being mounted on a missile. My research on how nation states and my experience conducting give me some insight into the methods North Korea used to make illicit procurements and the limitations in using technology-based sanctions to prevent them. In 2006 — following North Korea’s first nuclear test — the U. N. Security Council the “supply, sale or transfer” of “items, materials, equipment, goods and technology” that could contribute to the country’s missile program. Efforts to prevent North Korea’s acquisition of missile technology by certain nations — notably the United States — had been. However, the U. N. sanctions went further by placing standardized legal requirements on all states to prevent the development of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction programs. These sanctions are “universal.” That means they are obligatory for all states around the world.
