Seeds for the Next Pearl Harbor Sown Today at the UN Security Council Vote on North Korea
Sadly, the Trump administration has followed the paths of its predecessors and gone to the UN Security Council for one more round of ineffective sanctions on Pyongyang in a bid to halt North Korea’s nuclear and long-range ballistic missile programs. It is a move doomed to failure.
In the aftermath of North Korea’s sixth nuclear test, in this case a two-stage thermonuclear device and test firing of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), the US and its allies had talked tough sanctions against the Hermit Kingdom. Early draft resolutions reportedly included oil embargo, naval blockade, freezing and seizure of Kim Jong-un’s assets, restrictions on North Korean laborers working abroad, and ending the North’s textile exports. New drafts due to go to a vote today included watered-down, graduated oil and gas restrictions, and halting exports of the Pyongyang’s textiles in a bid to get China and Russia’s support for new minimal sanctions. Never mind that Russia has already said no to further sanctions, China is lukewarm, and reports today that suggest that the North has enough oil and gas stockpiled to weather the storm. It seems that when the UN Security Council and its permanent five members want to appear relevant that they turn to discussions about sanctions that they know will fail.
The history of sanctions, as naval blockades, is that trade always manages to get through. These sanctions will fail, just as 24 years of previous sanctions have failed. The message to North Korea, Iran, and any other state that wants to be a nuclear power on September 11th, is go ahead, no one is going to stop you. Expect more nuclear tests, and anticipate missile launches galore, knowing that each ICBM test-fired out into the Northern Pacific could be armed for an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack on North Americas critical infrastructure. Keep in mind, it is only a few years ago that a freighter was found with North Korean missiles on it, having transited the Panama Canal and sailed the Gulf of Mexico coast to see if they could position missiles within range of the US for a potential surprise attack.
It is so ironic that on this day, September 11th, that ranks up there with December 7th and Pearl Harbor, the US is going to knuckle-under again, and give Kim Jong-un the two years he needs to perfect his nuclear warheads and his ICBMs so that he can threaten North America and the world with destruction.
