The Turn Of The Screw

According to a published report by Reuters, Chinese banks received a document from U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Monday.  One week earlier, the United Nations Security Council approved a new resolution against Pyongyang; the ninth set of sanctions.

The contents of the document are as yet unknown but are suspected to include economic sanctions on China cutting off Beijing’s access to the U.S. financial system.

Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce (R-CA) said, “We need to use every ounce of leverage…to put maximum pressure on this rogue regime,” adding that “time is running out.” Royce also called on Washington to target major Chinese banks, including the Agricultural Bank of China and the China Merchants Bank for dealing with Pyongyang.

Royce also said, “It’s been a long, long time of waiting for China to comply with the sanctions that we pass and, frankly, with the sanctions that the United Nations passed.” 

The committee chair went on to say the U.S. could give Chinese banks and companies “a choice between doing business with North Korea or the United States.” He added that the U.S. should also “go after banks and companies in other countries that do business with North Korea the same way.”

After four days of high-level meetings between the United States and several southeast Asian countries, President Trump announced at a luncheon with South Korea’s Moon Jae-In and Japan’s Shinzo Abe that China’s Central Bank instructed its financial institutions to stop doing business with North Korea, an action that is certain to have devastating financial consequences for the rogue regime.

As President Trump announced his newest executive order on Thursday he praised China’s president Xi Jinping for the “very bold move.”  “Our new executive order will cut off sources of revenue that fund North Korea’s efforts to develop the deadliest weapons known to humankind,” Trump said. He added that the U.S. seeks the “complete denuclearization of North Korea.”

Han Tae Song, Pyongyang's ambassador to the United Nations, was scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday but has delayed that speech.  No doubt the DPRK has been left thoroughly discombobulated over the forces being amassed against them and are feverishly referring to a thesaurus to top yesterday’s insult of comparing President Trump to a “barking dog”.