Intl sanctions on North Korea show effect

The US and South Korean militaries told media that a North Korean missile launch failed on Wednesday. According to the South Korean military, the missile “exploded right after it took off from a launch pad.” The US military said in a statement it “appears to have exploded within seconds of launch.”

The launch is widely believed to be a further protest against the joint USSouth Korea military exercises and related to the recent Northeast Asia trip of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Pyongyang hopes to confront the tough with toughness. However, the failure of this launch revealed the immaturity of North Korea’s missile technology.

The international sanctions have worked. It has become more difficult for North Korea to acquire resources for missile research and development. Given an increasingly consistent attitude from the international community to- ward sanctioning North Korea, the country is facing more difficulties in sidestepping them. The sanctions will exert a long- term effect. They will seriously undermine missile research and development, but not endanger the survival of the Korean regime in the shortterm. Such pressure is appropriate, and won’t lead to war.

When the North Korean nuclear crisis first broke out in the 1990s, Pyongyang claimed it would regard sanctions over nuclear tests as tantamount to a declaration of war. But now, North Korea is the most heavily sanctioned country in the world.

Neither the allies of the US and South Korea nor North Korea want war. That’s why the Peninsula still remains at peace despite repeated North Korean nuclear tests and the more stringent sanctions that ensued. North Korea has claimed to have nuclear weapons, but also has become the most insecure country in the world. It will realize this sooner or later.

Worries that Chinese participation in sanctions against North Korea would cause hostility between China and North Korea are unnecessary. As long as China doesn’t completely close its border with North Korea, doesn’t implement a full embargo on food and necessities, and doesn’t pose a direct threat to the survival of the Korean regime, China and North Korea will not come to the point of confronting each other despite their cold relations.

If Pyongyang conducts a sixth nuclear test, China should support the Security Council in raising the level of sanctions and tighten border controls. But the border should allow humanitarian materials such as food to get through.

At the same time, China should urge the US and South Korea to make a roadmap of reducing the military threats on North Korea and urge the North to suspend its nuclear activities. If the North can be clearly shown and convinced of the benefits to its security after it abandons nuclear weapons, it will be possible for the country to change its overall strategic thinking.

The Korean Peninsula is getting more complicated under major power contention. China needs to keep a sober mind regarding what it should do and what shouldn’t. Stopping North Korea from developing nuclear weapons is the primary goal of our Peninsula policy.

North Korea has claimed to have nuclear weapons, but also has become the most insecure country in the world.