Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 8 augusT 2017
US, Australia, Japan want coercive acts at Analysis: Sanctions may not halt

sea to be stopped; compliance on ruling North Korea’s nuclear ambition

By JIM GOMEZ features, and undertak- tentially oil- and gas-rich By M. PENNINGTON
TERESA CEROJANO ing unilateral actions that waterway with Taiwan Associated Press
Associated Press cause permanent physical and ASEAN member states WASHINGTON (AP) — The strongest sanctions yet
MANILA, Philippines (AP) change to the marine en- Brunei, Malaysia, the Phil- against North Korea could still prove no match for the
— The U.S., Australian and vironment in areas pending ippines and Vietnam in- communist country’s relentless nuclear weapons am-
Japanese foreign minis- delimitation.” tensified after Beijing built bitions.
ters called Monday for a The contending states islands in the disputed wa- While the United States hails a new package of U.N.
halt to land reclamation should clarify their claims ters in recent years and re- penalties that could cut a third of North Korea’s ex-
and military actions in the peacefully in accordance portedly started to install a ports, the sanctions themselves aren’t the American
South China Sea and com- with a 1982 maritime treaty missile defense system on objective. They’re only a tactic for getting Kim Jong
pliance with an arbitra- and international law, ac- them, alarming rival claim- Un’s totalitarian government to end its missile ad-
tion ruling that invalidated cording to the three, who ant states as well as the U.S. vances and atomic weapons tests, and there is little
China’s vast claims to the met on the sidelines of an- and other Western govern- evidence to suggest this newest round of economic
disputed waters. U.S. Sec- nual meetings of Asia-Pa- ments. China’s foreign min- pressure will be more successful than previous efforts.
retary of State Rex Tillerson, cific foreign ministers in Ma- ister said over the weekend Whatever the economic pain on Pyongyang, Kim’s
government has expressed no interest in negotiating
away its fast-growing arsenal of perhaps 20 nuclear
bombs and the ballistic missiles needed to deliver
them. For the young North Korean leader, the weap-
ons are fundamental to the survival of his authoritarian
regime, even if they deepen diplomatic isolation and
bring even more extreme poverty for his long-suffering
people.
And the sanctions may not prove effective. The North
has learned through decades of U.S. efforts at isolation
how to circumvent commercial and financial restric-
tions, and reluctant powers like China and Russia have
often proven half-hearted partners when it comes to
policing their ally.
“On paper, this is a pretty strict containment of North
Korea economically,” said Scott Snyder, an expert on
Korea at the Council on Foreign Relations. “But North
Korea has been able to evade sanctions in the past
and it’s not clear to me things are going to be much
different this time.”
Speaking in the Philippines after meeting Asian foreign
ministers, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday
said there is “no daylight” in the view among Wash-
ington and its partners that North Korea must move
toward abandoning its nuclear weapons. But he was
quick to stress the importance of everyone enforcing
U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson, left, is greeted by Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Allan Peter the new, tougher sanctions.
Cayetano at the start of the 7th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila, Philippines “We will be monitoring that carefully,” he said.
on Monday, Aug. 7, 2017.
(AP Photo/Aaron Favila, Pool) The U.N. penalties aim to cut off roughly $1 billion of
North Korea’s estimated $3 billion in annual exports,
Australian Foreign Minister nila, including those from that talks for a long-sought by banning countries from importing its coal, iron, lead
Julie Bishop and Japan’s China and Russia. code of conduct in the and seafood products, and stopping them from let-
new top diplomat, Taro Their remarks, which are South China Sea, first moot- ting in more North Korean laborers, who help Kim’s
Kono, also called on their aimed at taming aggres- ed in 2002, may finally start government by sending cash home. President Donald
Southeast Asian counter- sion in the disputed waters, this year if “outside parties” Trump’s U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, called it “the
parts to rapidly negotiate are considerably stronger don’t cause a major disrup- single largest economic sanctions package ever lev-
a legally binding maritime than a joint statement of tion. Adding to the drum- eled against” North Korea.
code with China aimed at concern issued by their beat of criticism, the com- Even if, in the best-case scenario, the sanctions hurt
preventing an escalation counterparts in the Asso- mander of U.S. forces in the North Korea’s economy and weaken its government,
of conflicts in one of the ciation of Southeast Asian Pacific, Adm. Harry Harris, questions remain over what to do next. Can North
world’s busiest waterways. Nations, a 10-nation bloc said Monday that the code Korea be persuaded to give up its weapons of mass
In a joint statement, the whose economies depend of conduct negotiations destruction, removing the threat to the United States
three expressed serious heavily on China. with an “aggressive” China and its allies, South Korea and Japan? If not, what new
concerns over the long- Their stance also contrasts will be a key challenge for options does the United States have? Trump is only the
seething sea disputes and with that of China, which the region. China’s rejec- latest U.S. president to choose sanctions instead of
“voiced their strong oppo- opposes what it consid- tion of an international rul- confronting the North militarily or offering diplomatic
sition to coercive unilateral ers meddling in Asian dis- ing in 2016 that supported talks without nuclear concessions.Much rests on the
actions that could alter the putes by the United States the territorial claims of the willingness of China, the North’s traditionally ally and
status quo and increase and other Western govern- Philippines “demonstrates main trading partner. China opposes Pyongyang’s
tensions.” They urged ri- ments. Beijing wants the to any observer what kind nuclear weapons, and was uncharacteristically forth-
val claimant states in the disputes to be resolved of country China is,” Harris right in saying so this week. But it remains cautious of
South China Sea “to refrain through one-on-one nego- said in Jakarta, the Indo- triggering a North Korean collapse, fearful of foment-
from land reclamation, tiations. nesian capital, at a meet- ing chaos along its border or advancing any scenario
construction of outposts, China’s territorial disputes ing of the U.S.-Indonesia that would lead to a reunified and U.S.-allied Korea on
militarization of disputed in the strategic and po- Friendship Society.q its doorstep.q