U. S. TRIES TO PUT SQUEEZE ON N. KOREA

Tillerson goes to U. N. seeking tougher sanctions as president warns of ‘ major, major conflict’

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged the United Nations Security Council on Friday to impose new sanctions against North Korea to stop its nuclear threat, warning that failure to act would be “catastrophic.”

Tillerson said the world community needs to increase North Korea’s financial isolation and tighten sanctions already in place. He said the U. S. would not hesitate to sanction other countries that support North Korea’s illegal efforts to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, adding that he looked forward to further action by China, North Korea’s patron.

President Trump told Reuters on Thursday a “major, major conflict” with North Korea is a possibility for the U. S., but the White House is trying to come up with diplomatic solutions.

Some of those solutions:

ENFORCE CURRENT SANCTIONS

Tighten enforcement of existing U. N. Security Council sanctions. The latest sanctions resolution

passed by world powers in November was touted as the strongest ever, but the State Department and analysts say those measures have yet to be fully enforced. The sanctions limit North Korea’s sale of conventional weapons, coal and iron ore, especially if revenue would benefit its nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

“China and other countries in Africa and Southeast Asia are plainly not implementing all these sanctions,” said Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank in Washington.

Some of those countries need help from the West to screen for complicated financial arrangements designed to hide North Korean involvement, and others are simply not interested in implementing the sanctions because they benefit from cut- rate North Korean pricing, Ruggiero said.

STOP CHINESE CARRIERS

The U. S. could start publicly calling out companies involved in North Korea’s weapons programs, such as two Chinese trucking companies that provided or helped build large vehicles North Korea uses to transport, erect and launch its missiles, said Richard Fisher, a China and Korea analyst at the International Assessment and Strategy Center. The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation and the China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, or Sinotruk, have provided trucks or large missile carriers that North Korea uses to transport missiles aimed at U. S. forces in Asia, Fisher said.

The vehicles were displayed in an April 15 military parade, where North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s forces showed off their capabilities and intentions to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles able to reach U. S. cities.

EXPOSE BEIJING’S SUPPORT

U. S. intelligence officials could expose companies involved in helping North Korea obtain the capacity to produce lithium- 6, a substance crucial for the development of thermo- nuclear weapons — hydrogen bombs and boosted atomic bombs— that produce a far more powerful blast than atomic bombs, Fisher said.

According to a March 17 report by the Institute for Science and International Security, citing government sources, North Korea arranged in 2012 to purchase industrial equipment and materials in China, including mercury and lithium hydroxide.

Those substances have civilian as well as military uses but together indicate an effort to produce lithium 6, the ISIS report said.

That means the Chinese government approved the transfer of technology to manufacture thermonuclear weapons to North Korea, Fisher said.

TOUGHER U. N. SANCTIONS

The November Security Council sanctions resolution “calls upon” the international community to “exercise vigilance” over North Korean activities that produce revenue for the regime and its weapons program. Among these are workers sent by North Korea abroad to earn hard currency used for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, according to the Security Council. This “slave labor,” Ruggiero said, has been used to build World Cup facilities in Qatar and St. Petersburg, Russia, in the Russian logging industry, and in Kuwait and generates $ 500 million annually for North Korea.

Tillerson should seek a new resolution that cuts off North Korea’s access to revenue streams from laborers and to counter illicit activities such as cyber bank heists and drug trafficking, Ruggiero said.

U. S.- COALITION SANCTIONS

The U. S. could bypass the Security Council and impose its own sanctions. The Trump administration could develop a multinational coalition to cut off revenue to the North Korean government, like the Obama administration did to counter Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

The U. S. and its allies should issue arrest warrants for senior company officers in China and other countries who participate in military assistance programs that benefit North Korea and seize their assets, Fisher said.

CUT ACCESS TO U. S. BANKS

The U. S. Treasury could cut off access to the U. S. financial system for banks, companies and individuals anywhere in the world who do business with North Korean entities. That would shut down North Korea’s missile and conventional weapons sales, which represent 40% of the nation’s economy, said Bruce Bechtol, a political science professor at Angelo State University in Texas and an expert on North Korea.