Strangle North Korea’s lifelines

Fresh sanctions imposed on North Korea by a unanimous vote of the 15 members of the UN Security Council, including China and Russia, fall short of what Washington and its allies wanted. But they are the toughest sanctions yet imposed on the rogue state. Targeting oil supplies, for the first time, provides a glimmer of hope that Pyongyang’s murderous dictator Kim Jong-un will think again before escalating the crisis. The outcome, however, depends on China’s willingness to fully implement the expanded sanctions. For the sake of peace in the Asia-Pacific region it needs so do so, rigorously.

Oil sanctions, advocated by Malcolm Turnbull in the aftermath of North Korea’s September 3 detonation of a thermonuclear device, have long been seen as the communist state’s achilles heel. The US, wisely, wanted the new package to include a 100 per cent embargo on the flow of crude oil through the so-called “Freedom Pipeline” from China on which Pyongyang is wholly reliant. To maintain Chinese and Russian support for the resolution, however, the Security Council agreed to a cut of only 30 per cent in the oil flow. The measures also include an embargo on natural gas and condensates to close off North Korea’s access to alternative fuels. There is also a complete embargo on textile exports, which last year earned $906 million for Pyongyang, a quarter of its export income. The sanctions also preclude UN members from renewing contracts for 93,000 North Korean workers who labour in 45 countries, earning $625 million a year. Combined with previous UN sanctions, 90 per cent of North Korea’s 2016 exports totalling $2.6 billion are now officially proscribed by the UN.

It is China, however, which is responsible for 90 per cent of Pyongyang’s trade, that holds the key to success. China’s own move to ban bank transactions with North Korea is a good sign. But if Beijing seriously wants to avoid a military conflict and a mass influx of North Korean refugees it must do far more. Vladimir Putin, hopefully, is wrong when he says North Koreans would rather eat grass than submit to sanctions.