Logistics support ship for New ZealandA ceremony to commission a 23,000-ton top-of-the-line logistics support ship for the New Zealand navy is held at a Hyundai Heavy Industries quay in Ulsan, some 410 km southeast of Seoul, on April 24, 2019, in this photo provided by the shipbuilder. The New Zealand ambassador to Seoul, the New Zealand naval chief of staff and three New Zealand Korean War veterans attended the ceremony. (Yonhap)
Image of North Korean ship detained in 2013 in Panama. [CNN]
The proposed U.S. sanctions would also freeze all foreign financial assets of the government and its leader, Kim Jong Un. The U.S. draft also identified nine ships that have carried out activities prohibited by previous U.N. resolutions and would authorize any U.N. member state to stop these vessels on the high seas without their consent and use “all necessary measures” — which in U.N. language includes force — to carry out an inspection and direct the vessel to a port.
Professor Joseph DeThomas of Pennsylvania State University, a former U.S. ambassador and State Department official who dealt with North Korea, said the U.S. demand for quick council action is “an indicator of how the administration thinks time has run out.”
“My sense is they believe that they don’t have time for a delicate diplomatic dance,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday. “The other possibility … is they want to see the color of China’s money. They’re putting down the marker here and saying ‘OK, Are you prepared to do what is necessary to put pressure on North Korea at a moment when we’re simply out of time?'” [Associated Press]
