The U.S. and the global community will not tolerate North Korea’s illicit nuclear and ballistic missile activities, and we will continue to impose costs on North Korea until it comes into compliance with its worldwide obligations, Earnest said.
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“This trip provides an important opportunity for discussions of ways to strengthen U.S.-China coordination in response to North Korea’s destabilizing behavior and to ensure sanctions targeting the North Korean regime are as effective as possible”, it added.
Ambassador Oh Joon also touted the newly introduced US standalone sanctions on the communist state, which penalizes “any person”, including those of third-country nationalities, for engaging in the state’s nuclear, missile and other banned activities.
Marzuki Darusman, the U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea’s human rights situation, said in a report to the U.N. General Assembly last year that Pyongyang earns between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion per year from such worker exploitation.
Legislation that Obama signed into law on February 18 was created to deny North Korea the money it needs to develop miniaturized warheads and the long-range missiles required to deliver them.
A vote was conducted in the United Nations which showed that there is anger in the member countries against repeated actions that mock the nuclear ban imposed on it. The Security Council also sought new North Korea sanctions.
But in a sign of Beijing’s frustration with Pyongyang, China’s state news agency Xinhua said that the South Korean and Chinese foreign ministers had discussed the sanctions by telephone late on Monday and agreed on the importance of implementing them “in a complete and comprehensive manner”.
He went on to caution US citizens against travelling to North Korea, which also threatened to launch a pre-emptive attack if it sees any hints that South Korean and USA troops involved in the annual military drills are planning to invade. The point is not lost on North Korea, which has recently been repeating its threat to nuke the White House until “not even ashes are left”.
North Korea opened the year with claims of having tested its first hydrogen bomb on January 6.
China is by far the North Korean government’s largest business partner and invests in numerous economic sectors identified on Wednesday.
South Korean defence officials and many outside experts have said that North Korea does not have a workable re-entry vehicle yet, which means that it still does not have a reliable missile system that could hit the US mainland.
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“It’s going to be hard for North Korea to move cash anyplace on the planet”, said Harrell, now with the Center for a New American Security. China has nothing to gain from aggressive North Korean nuclear and missile programmes.
