In back-to-back announcements, both Peru and Mexico announced that they would be expelling the North Korean ambassador from their countries, although they stopped short of cutting off diplomatic ties altogether.
While this may have been the best that could be achieved at the United Nations, it is disappointing that China and Russia would not support more robust sanctions against North Korea.
Now that North Korea has defied warnings from the international community not to conduct a sixth nuclear test, including from its friends China and Russia, the challenge is, how to respond?
Sanctions have played a foundational part in the international community’s efforts to curtail North Korea’s weapons programs over the past decade.
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously passed new sanctions on North Korea in response to Pyongyang’s intercontinental ballistic missile tests on July 4 and 28.
ICBMs are not the only things soaring in North Korean skies. Comprehensive second quarter data released by China Customs last week shows a huge jump in North Korea’s trade deficit with China.
Last week, the House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelming passed and sent to President Trump’s desk a new sanctions bill for his expected signature.
According to news reports, the State Department will soon publish a new regulation to ban Americans from visiting North Korea for tourism.
While sanctioning Chinese entities that are evading sanctions to do business with North Korea is a key step, the administration should continue to go after non-Chinese actors engaged in sanctioned activities with North Korea.
It usually takes some time to figure out the details of what a North Korean missile test has accomplished – what type of missile it was, how it performed, its capabilities – but from the initial information regarding North Korea’s July 4th missile test, it appears that they have successfully tested an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).