In a resilient North Korea, can sanctions work?

According to South Korea military, North Korea carried out the firing exercise at around 7:20 a.m. on Saturday local time, Yonhap reported.

The ministry also said that the effectuation of the act will strengthen the concerted efforts by the worldwide community to make Pyongyang “pay the price” for its latest provocations.

The steps approved included the ban on entry of all North Korean-registered ships into Japan and of third-country ships from entering Japan after visiting ports in North Korea.

Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said the new military chief was one of Kim’s top three aides and was known to be well-versed in missile technology.

“It imposes secondary sanctions on North Korea’s partners, thus presenting them with a strong economic disincentive: Either continue to do business with North Korea and be blocked out of the USA financial system or stop all business with North Korea and continue to have access to the US financial system”, Lee told RFA’s Korean Service.

President Obama has signed new expanded sanctions on North Korea, after the country fired a test missile earlier this month.

The bill calls for imposing mandatory sanctions on anyone assisting Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs, cyberattacks and human rights abuses.

The North shelled the island in 2010, killing four people, amid disputes over a live fire drill conducted at the South near the disputed sea border.

Furthermore, our military experts have warned that the situation on the Korean Peninsula may be at its most unstable point in over sixty years.

US Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook announced last Monday that the US and South Korea had begun formal consultations to improve its “alliance missile defense posture”.

Repeatedly over the past six weeks, since the January morning that North Korea surprised the world with its fourth nuclear test, the United States, South Korea, Japan and their allies have vowed to get tough on Pyongyang.

Chinese companies are the implied targets of the new law, USA and Japanese diplomatic sources say.