Trump makes new veiled threat against N. Korea
Congress is shown satellite images of illegal trade.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday new U.N. sanctions “are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen” to stop North Korea’s nuclear march.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials showed Congress satellite images of illicit trade to highlight the challenge of getting China and Russia to cut off commerce with the rogue nation.
The new restrictions approved by the U.N. Security Council on Monday in response to what Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian government said was a hydrogen bomb test Sept. 3 could further bite into North Korea’s meager economy. The world body banned North Korean textile exports, an important source of hard currency, and capped its imports of crude oil.
But the measures fell far short of Washington’s goals: a potentially crippling ban on oil imports and freezing the international assets of Kim and his government.
“We think it’s just another very small step — not a big deal,” Trump said as he met with Malaysia’s prime minister at the White House. “But those sanctions are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen.” He did not elaborate.
Despite their limited economic impact, the new sanctions succeed in adding further pressure on Pyongyang without alienating Moscow and Beijing.
The U.S. needs the support of both of its geopolitical rivals for its current strategy of using economic pressure and diplomacy — but not military options — to get North Korea to halt its testing of nuclear bombs and the missiles for delivering them.
Trump said it was “nice” to get a 15-0 vote at the U.N. But underscoring the big questions about Chinese and Russian compliance, senior U.S. officials told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday that effective enforcement by both the North’s neighbors and trading partners will be the acid test of whether sanctions work.
The U.N. has adopted multiple resolutions against North Korea since its first nuclear test explosion in 2006, banning it from arms trading and curbing exports of commodities it heavily relies on for revenue. That has failed to stop its progress toward developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the American mainland.
Briefing the U.S. lawmakers, Marshall Billingslea, Treasury assistant secretary for terrorist financing, displayed satellite photos to demonstrate North Korea’s deceptive shipping practices. He focused in particular on how it masks exports of coal that were banned in August after the North tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles.
In one example, a North Korean ship registered in St. Kitts and Nevis was said to have sailed from China to North Korea, turning off its transponder to conceal its location as it loaded coal. The ship then docked in Vladivostok, Russia, before finally going to China to presumably unload its cargo.
China accounts for 90 percent of North Korea’s external trade.