| In this photo captured from North Korea's Korean Central Television report, Wednesday, a missile which North Korea claims to be a hypersonic one is set for test launch a day earlier. The launch site was known as Jagang Province. Yonhap |
By Nam Hyun-woo
The U.S. has slapped its own sanctions on North Korea following the North's latest missile launches and encouraged other countries to join the move, showing that Washington is now veering toward an “action for action” approach. This shift is expected to leave no room for South Korea's outgoing Moon Jae-in government to arbitrate U.S.-North Korea relations.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, tweeted, Wednesday, that the U.S. was “proposing U.N. sanctions following North Korea's six ballistic missile launches since September 2021, each of which were in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.”
The proposal came hours after the U.S. Department of Treasury slapped its own sanctions on six North Koreans, one Russian and one entity, accusing them of procuring goods for the North's “weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs.” The sanctions came just two days after the North tested what it claims was a hypersonic missile.
“These designations convey our serious and ongoing concern about the DPRK's continued proliferation activities and those who support it,” U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement. “The United States will use every appropriate tool to address the DPRK's WMD and ballistic missile programs, which constitute a serious threat to international peace and security and undermine the global nonproliferation regime.”
The DPRK is an acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
Of those on the blacklist, Blinken specified the relationship between North Korean O Yong-ho, Russian national Roman Anatolyevich Alar, and Russian entity, Parsek LLC, was “a key source of missile-applicable goods and technology for the DPRK's missile program.”
Reportedly, the U.S. had proposed that five of those individuals also be subject to a U.N. travel ban and asset freeze.
| Researchers of North Korea's Academy of National Defense Science pose with the regime's leader Kim Jong-un, ninth from right, in this photo carried by Korean Central News Agency, Wednesday. Yonhap |
The sanctions were the first missile-related punitive measures against North Korea by the Joe Biden administration. In December, the U.S. slapped sanctions on Ri Yong-gil, minister of the People's Armed Forces, and other North Korean entities, but they were about the regime's human rights abuses and other nations were also included on its blacklist.
Experts said the two sanctions are completely different, because the latest ones are “precisely targeting North Korea's missile programs” and include the U.S.'s “clear intention that it will respond with action for action.”
“The timing of the fresh sanctions appears to be the U.S. response to the North's recent missile tests, and as it covers those believed to have played their role in securing goods for missile programs, it is directly targeting North Korea's missile programs, and also sends a message to Russia and China, too,” said Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
“The U.S. knows that its proposal for additional U.N. sanctions will not be passed right away, given that it requires agreement from Russia and China. It is closer to the U.S. preparing for further North Korean provocations and sending a message that it will take action for action.”
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, shared a similar view.
“The U.S. also knows well that additional U.N. sanctions are unlikely,” but took “a low-level punitive response against the Kim regime by sanctioning working-level North Korean officials.”
As the U.S. hinted that it will respond with action on North Korea's threats, experts also said the Moon government's efforts to entice the North to hold peace talks by declaring a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War with the U.S. are now losing significance in the minds of Washington and Pyongyang officials.
“The Moon administration's peace efforts seem to be off the track with the recent developments,” Go said. “Since the government is outgoing, the U.S. seems to be putting Moon's peace initiative on the back burner, while engaging talks for the end-of-war declaration as part of showing respect to its ally. The U.S. is now turning its focus on responding to North Korea's provocations.”