US targets new sanctions to counter North Korea threats

The US says it’s working on additional sanctions against North Korea, as it struggles to find ways to pressure the regime back to the negotiating table amid resistance from China and Russia.

“We have a new set of sanctions measures coming forward as we speak,” National Security Council Advisor Jake Sullivan told a CSIS forum on Wednesday, adding that the US would bolster military and intelligence cooperation with Japan and South Korea. He didn’t give details of the scope of the new measures. 

North Korea is already one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world. It’s not clear what is left for the US and its allies to target. Further steps, such as taking action against Chinese financial institutions suspected of doing business with the country could risk a broader confrontation between Washington and Beijing. 

The sanctions regime, which, among other things, includes a cap on fuel imports and limits on foreign income, has also shown cracks. North Korea was on track to exceed its 500,000-barrel cap of annual imports this year, according to a Panel of Experts report released in September.

North Korea has been ramping up provocations for months, firing off a record number of missiles this year. Last month it test-fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile with an estimated range long enough to carry a warhead to the American mainland, underscoring the challenges US President Joe Biden faces in trying to tame Kim Jong Un’s nuclear ambitions. Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have promised a coordinated response if Pyongyang detonates an atomic device, in defiance of United Nations resolutions.

Kim is finding space to ratchet up tensions as the US and its allies focus on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russia and China, two long-time partners of North Korea, have veto power at the UN Security Council and have shown no intent to punish Kim with extra sanctions. They played a critical role in passing such measures five years ago after Kim’s last atomic test.

Tighter military cooperation with Japan and South Korea would include upgrading “the alliance software that we have in the region,” and “steps with respect to the hardware,” Sullivan said, declining to give further details. The three countries have held intensive consultations on the matter at the leader level, he said. 

Both Japan and South Korea are seeking to bolster their defenses amid the growing threat from North Korea and simmering tensions over Taiwan. 

Sullivan underscored that the US continued to offer an olive branch to North Korea in a bid to defuse the situation. 

“We’ve made clear in both public and private communications that we bear no hostile intent towards the DPRK,” Sullivan added. “And yet Pyongyang has to date completely rejected this sincere outreach.”