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Trump Announces Harsh New Sanctions Against North Korea Trump Announces Harsh New Sanctions Against North Korea
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Trump announced harsh new shipping sanctions against North Korea on Friday — a clear signal, near the end of an Olympic Games marked by a rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula, that his pressure campaign against Pyongyang will not let up. WASHINGTON — President Trump announced on Friday harsh new sanctions against North Korea, signaling a return to his aggressive attempt to put pressure on the government of Kim Jong-un after an Olympic Games that had brought a brief lull in the tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
“Today, I am announcing that we are launching the largest-ever set of new sanctions on the North Korean regime,” Mr. Trump said to the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Oxon Hill, Md. The sanctions, which target 28 ships registered in China and seven other countries, are intended to close a stubborn loophole in the effort to cut off North Korea’s imports of oil and exports of coal. Illicit ship-to-ship transfers of refined fuel and coal have allowed North Korea to mitigate the pain from those earlier measures, which were imposed in response to the repeated nuclear and ballistic missile tests it has conducted.
The measures target 27 shipping companies and 28 vessels, registered in North Korea and six other countries, including China. The Treasury Department said the shipping firms are part of a sophisticated campaign to help North Korea evade United Nations sanctions restricting imports of refined fuel and exports of coal. The smuggling has also inflamed tensions with China and Russia, since both countries are linked to this trade.
Illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil and coal on the high seas have allowed North Korea to avoid the worst of the pressure from sanctions against its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The smuggling has been linked to China and Russia, increasing tensions with the United States. By going after the shipments, the United States is edging closer to the imposition of an economic blockade on the North. While Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stopped short of saying the Navy would forcibly board ships on the high seas, he said the United States would petition China and other countries to allow inspections of suspicious vessels.
Still, it was not clear how successfully the United States could enforce the new measures. Cutting off the illegal trade, analysts said, will require interdicting ships at sea, and North Korea could well regard a blockade or forced inspections of its vessels as an act of war. Mr. Trump’s move showed that he was determined to tighten the economic vise, even as the North and South embark on a new round of diplomacy. With the Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, drawing to a close, the gauzy images of a unified Korean women’s hockey team and synchronized North Korean cheerleaders are giving way to the grinding business of pressuring Mr. Kim.
[If you are in the Washington, D.C., area, attend a Times discussion on life with a nuclear North Korea on Monday, Feb. 26. Learn more and buy tickets » ] “If we can make a deal, it will be a great thing,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia. “And if we can’t, something will have to happen.”
The timing of Mr. Trump’s announcement was notable, coming just hours after South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, played host at dinner to Mr. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, who is leading the United States delegation to the closing ceremony of the Games on Sunday. “If the sanctions don’t work, we’ll have to go Phase 2,” he said, alluding to the threat of military action. “Phase 2 may be a very rough thing — may be very, very unfortunate for the world.”
Under Mr. Moon’s liberal government, South Korea has begun engaging with the North. That has caused strain with the Trump administration, which had long ruled out any discussions with the government of Kim Jong-un until it curbed its nuclear and missile tests. The timing of the announcement was striking, coming just a few hours after South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, played host at a dinner for Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who is leading the American delegation to the closing ceremony of the Games.
At Mr. Moon’s prodding, the White House now says it would be open to preliminary talks with North Korea. But the administration’s messages on North Korea are often contradictory, veering from openness to a hard line. Mr. Mnuchin said Ms. Trump discussed the sanctions with Mr. Moon before their dinner — grilled soft tofu for her and grilled ribs for him. Ms. Trump, using time-tested diplomatic language, told reporters she would “reaffirm our commitment to our maximum-pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized.”
Vice President Mike Pence foreshadowed these sanctions during a stop in Japan two weeks ago before he visited the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. He warned they would be the toughest yet, using the announcement to blunt a charm offensive by North Korea at the Games. Under Mr. Moon’s liberal government, South Korea has responded positively to North Korea’s proposal of dialogue. That has caused strains with the Trump administration, which fears that premature diplomatic contacts could undermine the pressure campaign.
“We will not allow North Korean propaganda to hijack the message and imagery of the Olympic Games,” Mr. Pence said at the time. “We will not allow North Korea to hide behind the Olympic banner the reality that they enslave their people and threaten the wider region.” Mr. Moon left no doubt about his appetite for engagement on Friday. “North Korea’s participation in the Winter Olympic Games,” he said, “has served as an opportunity for us to engage in active discussions between the two Koreas and this has led to lowering of tensions on the peninsula.”
The Treasury Department released satellite photographs of an alleged ship-to-ship transfer involving a North Korean and a Panamanian vessel. The identity of the North Korean ship had been disguised. At Mr. Moon’s prodding, the White House now says it would be open to holding preliminary talks with North Korea, too, a shift from its earlier refusal to do so until Pyongyang stopped its provocative nuclear and missile tests. But the administration’s messages on North Korea remain contradictory, veering from openness to threats of force.
In addition to China, the department sanctioned ships from Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama and Comoros. It did not blacklist ships or companies from Russia, even though Russia is suspected of supporting the illicit trade. By sending his telegenic daughter, Mr. Trump is projecting soft power and possibly countering Mr. Kim’s well-received decision two weeks ago to send his 30-year-old sister, Kim Yo-jong, to the opening ceremony. Mr. Trump also authorized a meeting between Vice President Mike Pence and North Korean officials when he sent Mr. Pence as his emissary to the Games’ opening ceremony. The North Koreans, put off by the vice president’s harsh criticism, canceled at the last minute.
But the sanctions underscore Mr. Trump’s readiness to use hard power. The administration described the ones announced this week as the strongest package yet — a distinction that has been true of multiple previous rounds.
“The administration is trying to do both of these things simultaneously, and the issue is whether it will work,” said Joel S. Wit, an expert on North Korea at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, who was involved in diplomacy during the Clinton administration that led to a nuclear agreement in 1994.
“If you’re a North Korean,” he added, “you might conclude that their efforts at diplomacy aren’t sincere, that they’re faking it.”
Mr. Wit said, however, that he expected the administration to continue to explore ways to engage North Korea. Part of the problem, officials said, is that in the administration, there remains a division between those in the State Department who favor diplomacy and those in the National Security Council who favor a harder line.
Mr. Pence first disclosed the sanctions in Japan two weeks ago before he arrived at the Olympics. But the Treasury Department was not prepared to release them at the time, a senior official said, and it has been scrambling to catch up ever since.
In the past, the United States has gone after ships suspected of transporting missiles and nuclear proliferation material. But stopping vessels suspected of carrying commercial goods, experts said, would be a major step up in the pressure campaign against Pyongyang.
“That goes into the realm of an economic blockade,” said Abraham M. Denmark, a former Pentagon official who is now the director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “It would be moving beyond proliferation and going after things that sustain North Korea’s economic lifeline.”
Such a move, he predicted, will meet resistance from China and Russia. Those countries thwarted an effort in December by the administration to put a provision into the latest United Nations Security Council resolution on North Korea that would permit countries to hail and board North Korean ships in international waters.
In addition to China, the Treasury Department sanctioned ships from North Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama, and Comoros. It did not blacklist ships or companies from Russia, even though that country is suspected of supporting the illicit trade.
A senior administration official said the United States had raised concerns about smuggling with Russia and had previously designated Russian entities with links to North Korea.A senior administration official said the United States had raised concerns about smuggling with Russia and had previously designated Russian entities with links to North Korea.
“Whether they’re Russian ships, whether they’re Chinese ships — we don’t care whose ships they are,” Mr. Mnuchin said. “If we have intelligence that people are doing things, we will put sanctions on them.”
He said the 28 ships blacklisted — with names like Oriental Treasure, Asia Bridge 1 and Koti — constituted virtually all the vessels currently known to engage in prohibited trade with North Korea.
As Mr. Mnuchin spoke in the White House briefing room, large boards behind him showed satellite images of a ship-to-ship transfer in December involving a North Korean and a Panamanian vessel. The identity of the North Korean ship had been masked with a Chinese name and home port.
The American military has begun contingency planning to stop and board suspect vessels bound for North Korea. But it is a perilous undertaking.
Navy or Marine warships would deploy small boats carrying troops who are trained in what the Pentagon calls visit, board, search and seizure operations. Once aboard, military officials said, the search party would have two options: sweep the ship and turn it back over to its crew or, if ordered by their commanders, seize it.
The military, however, has options short of boarding, officials said. It could track suspect vessels, by sea or with P-3 or P-8 surveillance planes, until they make port. The United States or its allies could then call on that nation to inspect the ship’s cargo to determine whether it violated existing United Nations sanctions.
Evan S. Medeiros, an Asia director in the National Security Council during the Obama administration, said, “The administration is walking right up to the line of what’s permissible under international law to aggressively increase the pressure on North Korea.”