By Kim Jae-kyoung
The United States and its allies are joining forces to tighten the screws on North Korea to curb Pyongyang's development of its nuclear weapons.
In particular, following the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching Alaska, the U.N. Security Council is threatening harsher sanctions on the isolated country led by young leader Kim Jong-un.
However, its provocations never stop. Nobody believes such countermeasures will bring any meaningful changes to North Korea's nuclear brinkmanship or the future course of its policy direction.
Why isn't strengthening sanctions to rein in North Korea working?
There are two key reasons why they aren't bringing the North under control, according to North Korea experts.
First, the sanctions are not strong enough to make North Korea behave. Second, international cooperation is insufficient to bring about the desired results.
They said people's common belief that "sanctions don't work" is based on two assumptions — that North Korea is the most sanctioned country on Earth and that all countries are doing everything possible to implement sanctions.
But they argue neither of the two assumptions is true.
According to North Korea analyst Joshua Stanton, who watches sanctions closely,the sanctions against North Korea are far weaker than those against Iran and, until about a month ago, even Zimbabwe.
"They are limited in scope to focus on North Korea's nuclear weapons development and proliferation," Tara O, adjunct fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS, told The Korea Times.
"For sanctions to be effective, international cooperation is required. A major problem is that the U.N. member states' implementation efforts are not uniform and sufficient."
She pointed out that while China is the main actor that should increase its efforts, it isn't the only country North Korea relies on to evade sanctions.
"North Korea has set up front companies in China, Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere to conduct procurement, sales and money laundering themselves, or set up additional front companies to do such activities," she said.
UN sanctions ‘quite limited'
In the face of the Kim regime's defiance, it is important to acknowledge that tightening sanctions on the North is in the world's interests.
"It is the responsibility of all states to abide by, at a minimum, existing U.N. resolutions, but of course, states should be encouraged to tighten sanctions on the North even further than existing U.N. sanctions, which are still quite limited," said Balbina Hwang, a visiting professor at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies.
In particular, she stressed that South Korea and Japan, as well as Australia and others who are U.S. allies and members of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) should all be pressing ASEAN to do more about North Korea.
The ARF is one of the few regional multilateral organizations in which the North is a regular participant.
"North Korea's provocations, while being progressively dangerous and disturbing, do not pose an existential security threat to ASEAN countries," said Hoang Thi Ha, lead researcher at the ASEAN Studies Center at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
"Some ASEAN countries may feel increasingly apprehensive about Pyongyang's acts of defiance and quietly distance themselves from the latter, but they do not want to burn their bridges."
Experts stressed that implementation should be the focus in order for sanctions to be more effective.
"Countries need to commit at the leadership level,devote enough resources to the matter and give broader authority, not only to investigation but prevention as well," O said.
"They need to pass relevant laws and develop a habit of sanctions implementation."
She said there should be more efforts to enhance cooperation with countries in the region and the U.S. to share information and best practices.
"The majority of the entities helping North Korea to circumvent the sanctions are in China, so China needs to do more," she said.
"At the same time, Southeast Asian and other countries can make more concerted and proactive efforts to implement sanctions and comply with U.N. resolutions."
More importantly, it should be recognized that ASEAN is not the only party other than China that provides a lifeline to Pyongyang.
North Korea has extensive relations with countries throughout Africa such as Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Egypt, Latin American and Caribbean countries such as Panama and Cuba and even European nations Poland and Romania.
"The world community, not just the U.S., should focus on a global approach if it wants to tighten sanctions on North Korea," Hwang said.
The United States and its allies are joining forces to tighten the screws on North Korea to curb Pyongyang's development of its nuclear weapons.
In particular, following the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching Alaska, the U.N. Security Council is threatening harsher sanctions on the isolated country led by young leader Kim Jong-un.
However, its provocations never stop. Nobody believes such countermeasures will bring any meaningful changes to North Korea's nuclear brinkmanship or the future course of its policy direction.
Why isn't strengthening sanctions to rein in North Korea working?
There are two key reasons why they aren't bringing the North under control, according to North Korea experts.
First, the sanctions are not strong enough to make North Korea behave. Second, international cooperation is insufficient to bring about the desired results.
They said people's common belief that "sanctions don't work" is based on two assumptions — that North Korea is the most sanctioned country on Earth and that all countries are doing everything possible to implement sanctions.
But they argue neither of the two assumptions is true.
According to North Korea analyst Joshua Stanton, who watches sanctions closely,the sanctions against North Korea are far weaker than those against Iran and, until about a month ago, even Zimbabwe.
"They are limited in scope to focus on North Korea's nuclear weapons development and proliferation," Tara O, adjunct fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS, told The Korea Times.
"For sanctions to be effective, international cooperation is required. A major problem is that the U.N. member states' implementation efforts are not uniform and sufficient."
She pointed out that while China is the main actor that should increase its efforts, it isn't the only country North Korea relies on to evade sanctions.
"North Korea has set up front companies in China, Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere to conduct procurement, sales and money laundering themselves, or set up additional front companies to do such activities," she said.
UN sanctions ‘quite limited'
In the face of the Kim regime's defiance, it is important to acknowledge that tightening sanctions on the North is in the world's interests.
"It is the responsibility of all states to abide by, at a minimum, existing U.N. resolutions, but of course, states should be encouraged to tighten sanctions on the North even further than existing U.N. sanctions, which are still quite limited," said Balbina Hwang, a visiting professor at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies.
In particular, she stressed that South Korea and Japan, as well as Australia and others who are U.S. allies and members of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) should all be pressing ASEAN to do more about North Korea.
The ARF is one of the few regional multilateral organizations in which the North is a regular participant.
"North Korea's provocations, while being progressively dangerous and disturbing, do not pose an existential security threat to ASEAN countries," said Hoang Thi Ha, lead researcher at the ASEAN Studies Center at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
"Some ASEAN countries may feel increasingly apprehensive about Pyongyang's acts of defiance and quietly distance themselves from the latter, but they do not want to burn their bridges."
Experts stressed that implementation should be the focus in order for sanctions to be more effective.
"Countries need to commit at the leadership level,devote enough resources to the matter and give broader authority, not only to investigation but prevention as well," O said.
"They need to pass relevant laws and develop a habit of sanctions implementation."
She said there should be more efforts to enhance cooperation with countries in the region and the U.S. to share information and best practices.
"The majority of the entities helping North Korea to circumvent the sanctions are in China, so China needs to do more," she said.
"At the same time, Southeast Asian and other countries can make more concerted and proactive efforts to implement sanctions and comply with U.N. resolutions."
More importantly, it should be recognized that ASEAN is not the only party other than China that provides a lifeline to Pyongyang.
North Korea has extensive relations with countries throughout Africa such as Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Egypt, Latin American and Caribbean countries such as Panama and Cuba and even European nations Poland and Romania.
"The world community, not just the U.S., should focus on a global approach if it wants to tighten sanctions on North Korea," Hwang said.
