Secretary of State Rex Tillerson downplayed the efficacy of new sanctions on North Korea on Thursday, and said China limited the United Nations to taking just “a small step” to roll back the regime’s nuclear program.
“We had hoped for a much stronger resolution from the Security Council,” Tillerson said Thursday during a press conference in London.
That echoed President Trump’s critique of the latest sanctions, although U.S. and other western diplomats initially touted them as a major advance in the international pressure campaign. Tillerson emphasized that the real power to influence North Korea lies with China, which has long protected the regime from western economic pressure.
“I think it’s clear that with respect to oil and a complete embargo of oil from the UN Security Council, that is going to be very difficult,” he told reporters. “In effect, that is directed at China alone because China supplies essentially all of North Korea’s oil.”
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley tried to negotiate such an embargo last week in response to North Korea’s latest test of a hydrogen bomb. Western diplomats were optimistic about getting such a measure through the Security Council, despite the potential for Russia or China to veto the package, believing that China had grown frustrated with their neighbor’s provocations.
Ultimately, though, Haley had to water down the sanctions proposal to mandate only a reduction in oil exports to North Korea rather than a total ban.
“I am hopeful that China — as a great country, a world power — will decide on their own and will take it upon themselves to use that very powerful tool of oil supply to persuade North Korea to reconsider its current path towards weapons development, to reconsider its approach to dialogue and negotiations in the future,” Tillerson said.
Senior House lawmakers made clear that they do not share that hope in a hearing that followed the UN Security Council vote. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., suggested that the United States might have to impose sanctions on China in order to convince it to stop propping up the North Korean regime. That suggested was praised by multiple Republicans.
“This is where the discussion needs to go next, if there isn’t full compliance with the sanctions that the UN have passed, because what’s at risk is our national security,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., replied.
Tillerson wants to use economic sanctions to induce North Korea to begin negotiations on the end of their nuclear weapons program. China, however, has argued that the U.S. military should stop conducting war games and other military activity in exchange for a freeze of the North Korean tests.
“We’re going to continue our efforts in the global campaign, we’re going to continue to call on all countries to fully implement the UN security council sanctions and resolutions,” Tillerson said. “And where countries have a sense that they can do more to put pressure on this regime to bring them to a point of dialogue in a very productive way, we ask that everyone do that.”
