ECONOMY/NATIONAL SECURITY/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/UN: “The Trump administration is turning to economic warfare—an intensified sanctions program—to deal with an increasingly belligerent North Korean regime.
But economic tools have a mixed record of success addressing geopolitical problems.
Sanctions helped end apartheid in South Africa. They pushed Iran to an agreement to curtail its nuclear program, though many critics say the deal is insufficient. Over 50 years they haven’t budged the Castro family from its hold on power in Cuba and failed to turn Russia back from its Ukraine incursions.
Much depends on how forcefully Washington applies its economic weapons and how much cooperation it gets from other nations.
Alarmed by Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test and preparations for another intercontinental ballistic missile test, the Trump administration is crafting harsher economic penalties against North Korea and its facilitators. Washington hopes tougher measures would avert a potentially catastrophic military conflict and forestall the evolution of Pyongyang’s nuclear-weapons technology.
U.S. officials are pushing the United Nations Security Council to ban North Korea textile exports, embargo oil sales to the country and prohibit it from renting out its workers abroad. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is readying new sanctions likely targeting the largest importers of North Korean goods and some of the banks facilitating that trade.”
-Ian Talley, “Economic Sanctions Have Limited Reach,” The Wall Street Journal online, Sept. 10, 2017 12:02pm