North Korea, Iran Vow to Continue Missile Programs Despite New U.S. Sanctions
Trump expected to sign new sanctions into law.
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President Donald Trump has said that he will sign a bill that will place new sanctions against Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
The sanctions against Russia have received the most attention, especially since Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to retaliate. But the bill has sanctions against North Korea and Iran over nuclear weapons and missiles, which both countries vow to continue working on.
From Fox News:
The North Korea sanctions are intended to thwart Pyongyang’s ambition for nuclear weapons by cutting off access to the cash the reclusive nation needs to follow through with its plans. The bill prohibits ships owned by North Korea or by countries that refuse to comply with U.N. resolutions against it from operating in American waters or docking at U.S. ports.
Goods produced by North Korea’s forced labor would be prohibited from entering the United States, according to the bill.
The sanctions package imposes mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them. The measure would apply terrorism sanctions to the country’s Revolutionary Guards and enforce an arms embargo.
But the North Korean regime stated that its Friday night missile test occurred because of the sanctions Trump intends to sign into law:
North Korea said Sunday its latest test missile, deemed by weapons experts as capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, was a “stern warning” to Washington against a new round of sanctions aimed at Pyongyang.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry said Washington should “wake up from the foolish dream of doing any harm” to the reclusive communist nation.
Iran has called the sanctions “hostile, reprehensible and unacceptable,” but the regime vowed to continue to continue its weapon program:
“It’s ultimately an effort to weaken the nuclear deal” but, “we will continue with full power our missile programme,” Bahram Ghasemi, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, said on Saturday (29 July) — a day after the US announced a new set of sanctions targeting Tehran’s missile programme.
“The military and missile fields […] are our domestic policies and others have no right to intervene or comment on them,” Ghasemi added.
Will Sanctions Work?
Probably not. US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley also said that “the time for talk is over” when it comes to North Korea after the kingdom tested a ballistic missile on Friday. From CNN:
North Korea “is already subject to numerous Security Council resolutions that they violate with impunity,” Haley said Sunday.
Instead, she pointed to China, saying Beijing “must decide if it is finally willing to take this vital step” of challenging Pyongyang.
Haley’s comments echoed President Donald Trump on Saturday, who said he was “very disappointed in China.”
“Our foolish past leaders have allowed (Beijing) to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk,” Trump tweeted.
That same CNN article argues that there is no good option when it comes to North Korea, especially with China:
The Obama and Trump administrations have placed great weight on Beijing acting to contain its neighbor and longtime ally, but some analysts warn assumptions about China’s influence on the North Korean regime may be out of date.
“Beijing’s channels to Pyongyang are frayed, they’re weak,” said John Delury, an expert on Chinese-Korean relations at Seoul’s Yonsei University.
“President Trump’s tweets reflect this inherited Obama view that the road to Pyongyang leads through Beijing — that’s a dead end.”
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Comments
I expect this means that Rex Tillerson will now resign as SecState. He is dismayed at Russian sanctions (His Exxon was fined for violating the existing sanctions two weeks ago). He also supported the Iran nuclear deal. He also supports terror-sponsoring Qatar. He is against designating the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
This guy should never have been made SecState.
And WHY wouldn’t both of them press forward?
The cost/benefit ratio is ALLLLLLLLLLL on the side of developing nuclear terrorist weapons for use against the civilized world.
These people don’t have any real reason to fear the T-rump administration. I’d bet there is real skepticism over whether even the sanctions will be rigorously enforced.
I seriously have doubts about the effectiveness of sanctions. Cuba has been sanctioned since 1959, the Castro brothers are billionaires, even the one at room temperature, and the masses live in poverty. Literacy rate is high but you can only read what they want you to. Political prisoners rot in prison. US citizen convicted cop killer have sanctuary. Sanctions? Really?
Sanctions don’t work (see Oil for Food). The leadership in Iran and the NORKS have not a care in the world while the civilian population starves. After all, the leadership is getting fat.
Time to keep a few BMD cruisers off the 12 mile limit and take out every missile Fatso Kim and the Mad Mullahs launch. Or, (preferably) take them out before they are launched.
Sanctions. Ooohh, how 20th century.
Nowadays when you don’t want to do anything real you do twitter hashtags.
FYI
Don’t know where to put this but it is sort of related.
More Winning – Foggy Bottom Begins Self-Draining as “Desperate” Career Diplomats Quit…
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/07/30/more-winning-foggy-bottom-begins-self-draining-as-desperate-career-diplomats-quit/
I suspect that North Korea does not really believe that they will be attacked if they misbehave. After all, they’re holding South Korea’s capital city hostage, they have tens of thousands of loyal soldiers keeping their starving citizens in line, and the unwavering support of China. Well, mostly unwavering. Maybe a little bit of wavering. Ok, wavering a lot.
Still, that’s a pretty big step away from using a nuke on a neighbor, particularly with the ability of the US to deliver a return volley in thirty minutes, or the next ones are free.
we need to ‘sanction the leadership of these rogue states’
now that is the type of sanctions which will yield results.