To push North Korea toward denuclearization, existing sanctions against Kim Jong Un’s dictatorship must be enforced. On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury department added two Russian companies to its blacklist for smuggling oil into North Korea in violation of international law. That’s the right move, but the Trump administration shouldn’t have waited until talks stalled to make sure sanctions were enforced.
Sanctions are an important tool to apply pressure on North Korea and make progress towards an agreement on denuclearization. When companies flout these sanctions by providing oil and other goods to the repressive and dangerous North Korean dictatorship, those companies undermine the safety of everyone who could be targeted by Pyongyang’s weapons, as well as the ongoing negotiations themselves.
Unfortunately, the U.S. seems to have turned a blind eye to companies violating the sanctions against North Korean oil imports when talks with Kim Jong Un were going well. That was a mistake.
Now that talks with Pyongyang have stalled, the U.S. wants to reapply pressure. Although there are other problems with U.S. strategy towards North Korea, if the U.S. had not relaxed its enforcement of sanctions, Kim may well be more motivated to work out an agreement with the U.S.
Instead, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, North Korea is continuing its development of nuclear weapons. The IAEA found that North Korea continues to enrich uranium and that construction of its main nuclear site is ongoing.
Moreover, it’s not as if Russian (and Chinese) violations of North Korean sanctions are a new occurrence. Earlier this summer, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, shared evidence of imported material in North Korea that was in violation of sanctions.
As the saying goes though, late is better than never.
On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that two Russian companies and six ships would be sanctioned for engaging in ship-to-ship transfers to North Korea.
In a statement, Mnuchin explained “ship-to-ship transfers with North Korea-flagged vessels from Russia or elsewhere of any goods being supplied, sold, or transferred to or from the DPRK are prohibited under the UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea and are sanctionable under U.S. law.”
He added, “Consequences for violating these sanctions will remain in place until we have achieved the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea.”
Aside from pushing North Korea to the negotiating table, the U.S. should have been proactive in enforcing sanctions because of Russian ambitions on the Korean peninsula.
As indicated by Moscow’s rebuke of the latest U.S. sanctions, which it has called groundless, Russia likely has its own reasons for wanting to head off any denuclearization agreement between North Korea and the U.S. Such an agreement would likely give Washington a greater foothold and in the region, threatening Moscow’s power.
If the U.S. wants its sanctions to be successful, they must be uniformly enforced. Waiting for talks to stall before pressuring compliance from Russian companies has damaged Trump’s position and will likely delay any agreement on denuclearization.
