Trump wants Oil and Labor Embargo on North Korea along with Naval Blockade

[CostinR]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...de-oil-embargo

The US will embark on an aggressive effort to tighten North Korea’s isolation on Monday with a call for an oil embargo and a partial naval blockade.

A draft United Nations resolution seen by the Observer would also block textile exports and the hiring of North Korean labour by foreign countries. The American delegation has called for the UN security council to debate the draft, in an attempt to force decisive action following last Sunday’s massive nuclear test of a bomb, Pyongyang’s sixth.

The most striking language in the resolution authorises naval vessels of any UN member state to inspect North Korean ships suspected of carrying banned cargo and to use “all necessary measures to carry out such inspections”. The implications of such a resolution would be far-reaching. Any attempt to board or divert a North Korean vessel could trigger an exchange of fire.

As well as banning any exports of “crude oil, condensates, refined petroleum products, and natural gas liquids” to North Korea, the draft resolution calls for a prohibition on the import of textiles and an end to the hiring of North Korean nationals, on the grounds that the regime uses the foreign currency earned “to support its prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programmes”.

Both Russia and China employ cheap North Korean labour. In Russia they work in logging camps and construction sites, helping build a new football stadium in St Petersburg that will be used in the World Cup next year.

The US draft measure would also freeze the assets of Kim Jong-un and the top leadership in Pyongyang.

Such a dramatic tightening of the economic vice is likely to meet resistance from China, which is anxious to avoid driving its embattled neighbour to the point of complete collapse; and Russia, which is promoting itself as a broker in the Korean standoff and has suggested that a new set of sanctions is “premature”.

“Up to now, the Chinese and the Russians have tried to keep on giving the US just enough to keep Trump playing the UN game,” said Richard Gowan, an expert on the UN at the European Council for Foreign Relations. “The question is what happens with an extraordinarily hardline resolution and US pressure to do something quickly.”

Gowan believes that “the Chinese are willing to consider some measures”, adding that the Russians are unlikely to veto a resolution on their own. However, any compromise resolution is likely to fall a long way short of the US draft measures, in terms of its impact on North Korea.

“All sides want to keep this in the council. And, for all the talk, the US doesn’t actually want a war here,” Gowan said. “At some point, they are going to have to compromise or walk away from the UN.”

The Trump administration claims to have a “plan B” if the UN resolution fails. The president has threatened to cut off trade with any country that continues to do business with North Korea. And on Wednesday, the US treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said documentation had been prepared to make that threat real if UN diplomacy failed.

“I have an executive order prepared that’s ready to go to the president that would authorise me to stop doing trade, put sanctions on anybody that does trade with North Korea, and the president will consider that at the appropriate time once he gives the UN time to act,” Mnuchin told reporters.

I don't know how likely it is that China accepts such sanctions on North Korea, it really depends on how angry they are at the North over their hydrogen bomb test.

Still don't expect North Korea to not react to such massive sanctions being imposed on them. They will and the Trump administration will reach a point where they've had enough.

[Ripster42]

I don't even see the point in the discussion. If china doesn't veto it russia will.

[Deleted]

So the US wants favours from China and Russia. N Koreas biggest economic partners.
(Examples being: China is N Koreas biggest trade partner, Russia employs N Korean Labourers in its lumber industry)

Yet the US has been hostile to both nations lately. (accusations of currency manipulations, threatning trade, accusations of election interference, stationing Military personel near borders)

[Crispin]

Sanctions won't ever convince N.Korea to stop doing what they're doing, seriously their soldiers have already been told to steal food from civilians at this point. The one guy who's making the calls, wont ever be affected by this in a way that will make him change his mind, when they've developed the technology to equip missiles with a nuclear weapon, they'll most likely stop all the testing.

[Deleted]

That article is factually wrong:

Both Russia and China employ cheap North Korean labour. In Russia they work in logging camps and construction sites, helping build a new football stadium in St Petersburg that will be used in the World Cup next year.

They probably heard that Asians do almost all construction in Russia, North Korea is in Asia, so it must be North Koreans, right? Wrong. There are plenty of cheap labor from much closer countries: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and other neighbouring countries. North Koreans possibly work in eastern Russia, but not in St Petersburg.

[CostinR]

I don't even see the point in the discussion. If china doesn't veto it russia will.

It's significant because the US has threatened to act on it's own and impose unilateral sanctions.

[Crispin]

That article is factually wrong:

They probably heard that Asians do almost all construction in Russia, North Korea is in Asia, so it must be North Koreans, right? Wrong. There are plenty of cheap labor from much closer countries: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and other neighbouring countries. North Koreans possibly work in eastern Russia, but not in St Petersburg.

Just out of curiosity, do you have anything other than "NO!" to claim that it's factually wrong?

[Deja Thoris]

It's significant because the US has threatened to act on it's own and impose unilateral sanctions.

Are they going to blockade china / Russias physical border with NK? Because ship blockades mean fuck all except a headline.

[Deleted]

That article is factually wrong:

They probably heard that Asians do almost all construction in Russia, North Korea is in Asia, so it must be North Koreans, right? Wrong. There are plenty of cheap labor from much closer countries: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and other neighbouring countries. North Koreans possibly work in eastern Russia, but not in St Petersburg.

I mean unless we are going with the fake news narrative, just looking up North Koreans St. Petersburg stadium gets you plenty of sources on the topic.

[Deleted]

That article is factually wrong:

They probably heard that Asians do almost all construction in Russia, North Korea is in Asia, so it must be North Koreans, right? Wrong. There are plenty of cheap labor from much closer countries: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and other neighbouring countries. North Koreans possibly work in eastern Russia, but not in St Petersburg.

N Korean workers were used for the Construction of the World Cup stadium in St Petersburg.

Edit: Lemposs beat me to it.

[Mittens]

Won't happen, China is very much a limp dick when it comes to NK.

[Ripster42]

It's significant because the US has threatened to act on it's own and impose unilateral sanctions.

That's not what this story is about though. This story is about the US calling for discussions in the UN for additional sanctions and a partial naval blockade of NK. That's never going to happen.

[PACOX]

Same guy with the same voter base that called Clinton a warhawk for proposing a no-fly zone...

[Deleted]

Won't happen, China is very much a limp dick when it comes to NK.

Yeah, total wusses for not starting nuclear war with NK!

[Sunseeker]

NK is a troll.

They're not stupid or crazy enough to actually start a war, but they're just loud enough to get everyone's attention.

You know what you do with trolls? You put them on your ignore list. You don't turn the world's attention towards them.

[Breccia]

I see no realistic way China will allow the sheer number of US Navy ships and subs in the area such a blockade would require.

[Mittens]

Yeah, total wusses for not starting nuclear war with NK!

Today I learned that more aggressive sanctions is literally the same as starting a nuclear war.