Tokyo Seeks Tough U.N. Response To North Korean Missile Launch

A day after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan, Tokyo is pushing the United States to encourage the United Nations to levy new sanctions against Pyongyang, including choking off North Korea’s oil supplies, a new Reuters report said.

New measures could be designed to target North Koreans who work abroad or oil supplies. The U.S. is usually the nation author of all drafts of the U.N.’s sanctions on North Korea. American diplomats then negotiate any potential sanctions with China, Pyongyang’s main ally in international circles.

The medium-range ballistic missile, fired, according to Kim Jong-un’s regime, in retaliation for South Korean military tests with the U.S., flew over northern Japan. Tokyo is seeking a “strong resolution” on North Korea, according to Koro Bessho, the Japanese ambassador to the U.N.

“We will certainly discuss it with the United States,” Bessho told reporters on Wednesday.

Beijing’s newest round of sanctions against Pyongyang ban only oil and gas exports from North Korea, while steady oil supplies from China to North Korea continue to prop up Pyongyang, allowing it to avert an energy meltdown, according to new reports emerging from the area.

Cheap North Korean workers still work in dimly lit factories to continue progress in weapons factories and related projects.

Still, the Chinese military has plans to defend North Korea from any ideas of regime change from the United States.

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“If China believes [it is] very much necessary to send troops inside to best serve its interests, I don’t see why China wouldn’t do so,” said Zhao Tong from the Carnegie Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy, based in Beijing.

Fresh sanctions against North Korea cover seafood, coal and iron ore coming from the country into China, which costs Kim Jong-un’s regime $1 billion a year. The new measures are sure to cut deep into the impoverished country of 25.1 million people, 70 percent of whom are food insecure.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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