Dealing with Pyongyang

North Korea is reacting very strongly against the latest round of additional UN sanctions unanimously adopted recently against it by the UN Security Council (UNSC) upon the recommendation of the US in reaction to its latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test generally viewed as the most advanced yet, carried out by the Kim Jong-un’s regime.  

Pyongyang has described these added sanctions as “an act of war” thus recognising and admitting that they are biting and far reaching. 

The country is even threatening that the members of the UNSC, which also supported the US sponsored resolution, will “pay a heavy price”, exactly the same way Washington has reacted a few days ago to the UN member states which opposed President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.  

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has expressed  similar punitive and intimidating threats  against UN member states which opposed its stance on Jerusalem at the UNSC and the UN General Assembly when the issue of Jerusalem was discussed last week. 

The additional sanctions imposed on Pyongyang were aimed to strangle the country’s energy supplies and tighten control of the country’s smuggling. The sanctions include cutting down exports of gasoline, diesel and other refined oil products by nearly 90 per cent. 

The sanctions also ban exports of industrial equipment, machinery, transportation vehicles and industrial metals to the country. The resolution also called for the “repatriation” of North Korean workers, totalling about 100,000, back to their country. 

In retrospect, the additional sanctions, over and above last September’s sanctions also adopted by the UNSC against the country following its testing of another generation of ICBMs which  Haley described then as “by far the strongest measures imposed on North Korea”, are obviously hurting. 

But it is not sure that this kind of language and posture will deter the country from further testing of ICBMs. The record of sanctions on North Korea has proven to be not only futile but also provocative enough to encourage it to up the ante on its missile testing. 

North Korea may respond more favourably to another kind of language and policy that have yet to be tried out. The most controversial part of the latest sanctions is the call for the forcible expulsion of North Korean workers within 24 hours. 

Such a policy is clearly contrary to international norms including the international Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as well as relevant International Labour Organisation conventions. 

Washington and its partners in UNSC need to adopt more prudent and effective ways to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme and means of their delivery and not counterproductive measures.