Washington Moving Ahead with Financial Sanctions on NK

US is apparently moving ahead with a plan to enforce further financial penalties on the North Koreans because of their illegal counterfeiting and financial activities:

But under the draft order, almost all finance companies would be effectively prohibited from doing business with North Korea. That would also affect international financial institutions outside the U.S. and thus deal a heavy blow to North Korea’s overseas trade.

In Perl’s reading, financial institutions would have a choice whether they are with or against the U.S., but given the importance of their U.S. interests, it would in effect force most major international firms to stop dealing with the North.

The South Korean government is of course upset that the US would enforce their own laws and levy penalties against the North Koreans for violating them. The financial sanctions plan will have an affect on the North Koreans, but I don’t see it causing the regime to collapse. The regime will not collapse until the South Koreans and Chinese stop given them continuous free hand outs. Whatever amount of money they lose from the financial sanctions the North Koreans will just demand an equable amount of aid from the South Koreans to make up for the short fall.