Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson on Wednesday called for the United States to “compel” China to implement international sanctions on North Korea.
“If China is not going to comply with those UN sanctions, then it’s appropriate for the United States to consider actions to compel them to comply,” Tillerson said during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing.
Chinese willingness to implement sanctions on North Korea, a rogue regime with a nuclear weapons program, has long been a point of contention for international negotiators. With the support of the Chinese government, the United Nations recently imposed a new round of sanctions on North Korea, following a spate of weapons tests.
But the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement following that sanctions vote that seemed to imply they perceived a loophole in the sanctions package. “Resolution 2321 formulates new measures, showing the resolve of the Security Council, and also points out they must avoid creating adverse consequences for North Korean civilian and humanitarian needs, and are not intended to create negative effects on normal trade,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in December.
In 2016, China purchased millions of tons of coal from North Korea, in apparent defiance of earlier sanctions, citing an exemption for “the people’s well-being,” according to Reuters.
Tillerson offered U.S. tolerance of China’s failure to implement the sanctions as an example of a broader failure in American foreign policy.
“I think a lot of our troubles today are that we do not enforce, we make commitments, we say we’re going to do something, and then we do not enforce it,” he said. “I think we have to be clear-eyed as to how far China will go and not get overly optimistic as to how far they’ll go. And that’s why, ultimately, it’s going to require a new approach with China in order for China to understand our expectations of them, going beyond certainly what they have in the past, which has fallen short.”
When Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., asked about “secondary sanctions” to be imposed on “Chinese entities” that deal with North Korea, Tillerson said such moves would have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. “To the extent that there are specific violations of the sanctions, such as the purchase of coal — which is specifically mentioned in the UN sanctions most recently — if there are gaps of enforcement, they have to be enforced,” he said.
