Unacceptable US Toughness on North Korea
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
The Trump administration rejects dealing with North Korea diplomatically, the only way to resolve contentious issues.
Maintaining hostility toward the DPRK is longstanding US policy. Respecting its sovereign independence would defeat Washington’s regional imperial agenda – to keep northeast Asia heavily militarized, a phony North Korea threat used as justification.
Japan and South Korea are occupied by US forces – China America’s real target, the DPRK a convenient punching bag, used to justify unjustifiable policies.
Sanctioning the country harshly is counterproductive. Saber rattling, threats, intimidation and bullying force its leadership to prepare for possible US aggression – an unthinkable, yet possible option.
The neocon CIA-connected Washington Post urged the Trump administration to impose “crippling sanctions” on Pyongyang, pressuring South Korea and Japan to go along.
Multiple earlier rounds of sanctions encouraged further development of Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. So will new ones no matter how harsh.
Russia and China won’t permit America’s new draft resolution to pass in its current form, a Monday vote scheduled. Its harshness includes cutting off oil shipments to the DPRK, along with interdicting and inspecting its vessels in international waters, among other unacceptable measures.
Neocon House Foreign Relations Committee chairman Edward Royce called for “full throttle…pressure” on the DPRK, including by sanctioning Chinese financial institutions doing business with the country.
In 2016, China accounted for 92% of North Korea’s trade, according to Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency data, including most of its oil imports.
Sanctioning China’s banking system is a lunatic idea. So is enforcing a US trade embargo on countries doing business with North Korea, an earlier Trump threat, harming America’s economy like targeted nations if imposed.
Section 301 of the unpatriotic Patriot Act empowers the US treasury secretary to designate foreign banks “institutions of primary money laundering concern,” cutting them off from the international financial system.
Preventing Chinese banks from doing business internationally in US dollars would be hugely disruptive economically, incentivizing Beijing to de-dollarize faster than what’s planned. It would cause a major rift in bilateral relations.
Global dollarization finances US militarism and naked aggression, takeovers by corporate America, reckless deficit spending, and speculative excesses creating economic crises at the expense of democratic freedoms, beneficial social change, as well as human and civil rights.
The only way to end destabilizing brinksmanship on the Korean peninsula is by engaging with its leadership diplomatically – a policy the Trump administration rejects.
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