Will the US Implement Banco Delta Asia Type of Sanctions on North Korea?
For the Banco Delta Asia type of sanctions to work the US must be willing to play hardball with Chinese banks and cut them off from the international financial system:
The United States does not rule out imposing sanctions on North Korea similar to the 2005 financial restrictions that had almost cut off the communist nation from the international financial system, the White House spokesman said Monday.
“I wouldn’t rule out additional steps like that,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at a briefing in response to a question whether unilateral sanctions the U.S. is currently considering against Pyongyang would be different from the 2005 measures.
At that time, the Treasury Department blacklisted a Macau bank. The measure not only froze North Korean money in the bank named Banco Delta Asia, but also scared away other financial institutions from dealing with Pyongyang for fear they would also be blacklisted.
That resulted in the North getting almost cut off from the international financial system. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but One Free Korea has a great analysis of the sanctions options that Congress in considering.
Lot of detractors of US sanctions on North Korea says that North Korea’s missile technology is not a real threat. They say liquid fuel rockets (North Korean rockets) are never going to be enough to become ICBM’s that could threaten the US. How accurate is this assessment and what could be NK’s real capability in the coming years?
@Tyson, the Taepodong-2 that was fired is not really a threat to the US because they have to stack and prepare it which makes vulnerable to a pre-emptive strike. What NK wants to use for their strategic strike weapon is the KN-08 which is their road mobile ICBM. There is likely technology from the Taepodong-2 they are testing that could be implemented on to their KN-08 design.
Even if the North Koreans cannot perfect the KN-08 they could always go the silo route and put Taepodong-2 missiles into the ground where they cannot be observed for any pre-emptive strike. So for anyone to claim that this latest rocket launch is not a big deal is incorrect in my opinion. Plus the rocket launch was a clear violation of UN sanctions on the country.