U.S. Readies More Sanctions Against Chinese Entities Over North Korea
26 July 2017 - 10:45AM
Dow Jones News
By Ian Talley
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. soon will issue new sanctions against
Chinese entities for violating United Nations sanctions against
North Korea, a senior State Department official said Tuesday.
Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary of the State
Department's East Asian bureau, told a Senate Foreign Affairs
subcommittee the Treasury Department shortly will be targeting more
Chinese entities involved in supporting Kim Jong Un's regime.
Ms. Thornton said the escalation in economic pressure follows
the failure of Beijing to take action on its own against Chinese
firms and individuals the U.S. warned were in violation of the U.N.
sanctions.
The U.S. is pushing the U.N. Security Council to approve fresh
punitive actions against North Korea in the aftermath of a July 4
test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile with the potential
to reach Alaska.
But amid complaints by the U.N.'s own experts that sanctions
compliance among the institution's member countries has been
inadequate, many U.S. analysts say such a multilateral strategy has
failed to put a dent in Mr. Kim's aspirations for a nuclear weapon
that can strike the U.S.
That is one reason Congress has rallied behind legislation that
will require the administration to levy tougher sanctions against
North Korea as part of a larger sanctions bill that also targets
Russia and Iran. It also accounts in part for the unilateral U.S.
action.
"We're definitely in the process of trying to elevate that
pressure and change the calculus," Ms. Thornton said.
China, a North Korean ally that shares a long border with the
country, is the nation's biggest trade partner. Analysts say
cutting off financing for Pyongyang's weapons program and military
requires ratcheting up sanctions on Chinese banks, firms and
individuals.
"The Chinese are now very clear that we're going to go after
Chinese entities if need be," Ms. Thornton said.
The Chinese embassy in Washington didn't respond to requests for
comment, but Beijing has said it opposes U.S. unilateral sanctions
against North Korea.
Although administration officials have said they are not
targeting China's government, the State Department's senior East
Asia official said Beijing needed to do "a lot more work"
implementing U.N. sanctions, including stopping illicit
cross-border trade flows and tracking financial transactions.
But while many U.S.-based analysts are calling the
administration to roll out a comprehensive sanctions strategy, Ms.
Thornton said Washington will move gradually.
"Ratcheting up sanctions pressure is not like a cobra strike,
it's definitely a slow squeeze, a slow tightening of the screws,"
she told the subcommittee.
In a major new phase of unilateral sanctions, the U.S. Treasury
last month move to cut off Chinese Bank of Dandong from U.S.
financial markets. The move, while only targeting one small bank,
is meant to chill financing for North Korea more broadly by sending
a signal to other institutions facilitating the regime that they
could lose access to the world's most important financial
market.
But many U.S. analysts say only an Iran-style sanctions regime
-- where the administration effectively cut off the flow of dollars
into the country over the last decade -- will force Pyongyang to
negotiate a halt to his nuclear and ballistic missile
development.
Write to Ian Talley at ian.talley@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 25, 2017 20:30 ET (00:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.