North Korean Sanctions Faulted

Every once in awhile, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board hits a subject hard and makes it shake back and forth from the force of it.  The title of the one today says it all:  The Latest North Korean Sanctions Show.  Let me quote just the opening paragraph

"The Trump Administration and the United Nations Security Council are heralding Saturday’s Resolution 2371, which imposes new sanctions on North Korea. But as Pyongyang sprints to the ICBM finish line, the insistence that this resolution will succeed when others failed is—let’s be kind here—hard to believe."

I have to say they are right on target, because after so many UN resolutions, North Korea is still heading towards an advanced capability to deliver nuclear weapons on a missile, and Iran is doing the same thing.  It is a show that we are all tired of watching.  China is the root cause of the failures of any of these sanctions, and they could care less about UN resolutions or sanctions of any kind - even ones they agree to.  That is why the US has threatened to sanction Chinese businesses (some state owned, some not) because they are allowed to violate those sanctions by their government - probably a government that encourages them to do it.  

We all know this, but until now have done very little about it.  We have a whole bunch of little countries in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN),  who are afraid to criticize China for much of anything, least of all sanctions violations or the militarization of the South China Sea.  China plays the economic warfare game every time one of them raises any kind of concern.  We don't help ASEAN very much in countering this bullying.  

So, we were on the right track by going after Chinese businesses that support whatever the Communist Government wants them to do.  It is the same as going after the government for doing it.  The Chinese want to push us as far as we will go, then slow down, but never retreat.  They want these nuclear armed countries threatening the US, so it has nothing to do with them.  They get the benefits, without the risk.  It shouldn't take 30 years to figure this out.