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[webfact]

Trump calls for new U.N. sanctions against North Korea

By Steve Holland and Ben Blanchard

REUTERS

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump faces a news conference at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 16, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

 

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday the U.N. Security Council must be prepared to impose new sanctions on North Korea as concerns mount that it may test a sixth nuclear bomb as early as Tuesday.

 

"The status quo in North Korea is also unacceptable," Trump told a meeting with the 15 U.N. Security Council ambassadors, including China and Russia, at the White House. "The council must be prepared to impose additional and stronger sanctions on North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile programs."

 

"This is a real threat to the world, whether we want to talk about it or not. North Korea is a big world problem and it's a problem that we have to finally solve," he said. “People put blindfolds on for decades and now it’s time to solve the problem.”

 

U.S. officials have told Reuters tougher sanctions could include an oil embargo, banning North Korea's airline, intercepting cargo ships and punishing Chinese banks and other foreign doing business with Pyongyang.

 

The State Department said U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would chair a special ministerial meeting of the Security Council on North Korea on Friday to discuss ways to maximise the impact of existing sanctions and show "resolve to respond to further provocations with appropriate new measures".

 

Tillerson and U.S. Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will also hold a rare briefing on North Korea at the White House on Wednesday for the entire U.S. Senate, Senate aides said.

 

Administration officials routinely travel to Congress to address lawmakers but it is unusual for the entire 100-member Senate to go to such an event at the White House, and for those four top officials to be involved.

 

The White House said Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the "urgent security challenge" posed by North Korea in a phone call on Monday.

 

In an earlier phone conversation with Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for all sides to exercise restraint, as Japan conducted exercises with a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group headed for Korean waters.

 

Angered by the approach of the USS Carl Vinson carrier group, a defiant North Korea, which has carried out nuclear and missile tests in defiance of successive rounds of U.N. sanctions, said the deployment was "an extremely dangerous act by those who plan a nuclear war to invade".

 

"The United States should not run amok and should consider carefully any catastrophic consequence from its foolish military provocative act," Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, said in a commentary.

 

Two Japanese destroyers have joined the U.S. carrier group for exercises and South Korea said it was in talks about holding joint naval drills.

 

South Korean and U.S. officials have feared for some time that a sixth North Korean nuclear test could be imminent and speculation has grown that this, or another missile test, could coincide with the 85th anniversary of the foundation of North Korea's army on Tuesday.

 

Trump has vowed to prevent North Korea from being able to hit the United States with a nuclear missile and has said all options are on the table, including a military strike, although officials say tougher sanctions are the preferred route.

 

China, North Korea's sole major ally, has been angered by its nuclear and missile programmes and its belligerence.

 

The White House said Trump and Xi "reaffirmed the urgency of the threat posed by North Korea’s missile and nuclear programmes, and committed to strengthen coordination in achieving the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula."

 

Xi told Trump China "hopes that all relevant sides exercise restraint, and avoid doing anything to worsen the tense situation", China's foreign ministry said in a statement.

 

It said the call was the latest manifestation of the close communication between the presidents, which was good for their countries and the world.

 

'FULLY READY'

 

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Washington and the international community were maintaining pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but "not trying to pick a fight with him".

 

Asked whether a pre-emptive strike was under consideration, she told NBC's "Today" programme: "We are not going to do anything unless he gives us reason to do something."

 

"If you see him attack a military base, if you see some sort of intercontinental ballistic missile, then obviously we're going to do that. But right now, we're saying 'don't test, don't use nuclear missiles, don't try and do any more actions', and I think he's understanding that. And China's helping really put that pressure on him."

 

Trump also spoke by phone with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

 

"We agreed to strongly demand that North Korea, which is repeating its provocation, show restraint," Abe told reporters. "We will maintain close contact with the United States, keep a high level of vigilance and respond firmly."

 

Envoys on the North Korean nuclear issue from the United States, South Korea and Japan are due to meet in Tokyo on Tuesday.

 

The U.S. government has not specified where the carrier strike group is but U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday it would arrive "within days".

 

Adding to the tension, North Korea detained a U.S. citizen on Saturday as he attempted to leave the country.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland in Washington and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Susan Heavey and David Brunnstrom in Washington, Takashi Umekawa and Linda Sieg in Tokyo, James Pearson in Seoul; and Philip Wen and Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and James Dalgleish)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-04-25

 

[Srikcir]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

intercepting cargo ships

That might qualify as an act of war.

And give North Korea international legitimacy to attack US armed forces in retaliation.

Hopefully, Trump will seek US congressional approval first, albeit unlikely to get it.

[baboon]

32 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

That might qualify as an act of war.

And give North Korea international legitimacy to attack US armed forces in retaliation.

Hopefully, Trump will seek US congressional approval first, albeit unlikely to get it.

It has been done before and proved a roaring success, not...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/810276/posts

[Srikcir]

1 hour ago, baboon said:

It has been done before and proved a roaring success, not...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/810276/posts

In the article: " the interdiction of this unflagged ship on the high seas was seized upon as an insult by the North Koreans."

 

North Korea is unlikely to sail its own flagged ships to openly break through any US interdiction line. It has flagged many of its ships under other nations such as Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Poland, Tuvalu, Hong Kong and Romania using shell companies owned by North Korea. To further complicate shipping interdiction North Korea also charters foreign flagged ships.

 

So seizure of vanilla-looking cargo ships departing and arriving North Korea could cause the US a profusion of international condemnation and political capital.

[Peterw42]

I think a really good sanction would be to stop them being able to buy missiles and technology. They are not making the missiles or getting them off ebay.

[sujoop]

Calling for UN Sanctions merely to give the false impression Trump is more interested in diplomacy than 'bombing the *ell out of em' . Meanwhile, Trump is approaching 100 days and his main accomplishment is achieving historic low approval ratings.  He did get a bump after the previous wag-the-dog outings in Syria and Afghanistan though. Now he's actually taunting/goading North Korea, why?

 

Angry Trump lashes out over approval rating
The president continues to rant about new numbers that show he is approaching his 100th day with the lowest approval rating in more than 70 years.'Totally wrong'
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-fumes-supposedly-fake-polls-giving-dismal-approval-rating-131804187.html

 

Trump taunts North Korea
Trump told a reception of conservative journalists that Kim wasn't the strong leader he likes to portray himself as.
"I'm not so sure he's so strong like he says he is, I'm not so sure at all," Trump told the reception
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/25/asia/north-korea-donald-trump-kim-senate/

[Srikcir]

6 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

They are not making the missiles

But they are.

"North Korea’s [weapon] programs, however, appear largely indigenous.....This means that, while specific sites could be shut down or weapons removed by a potential agreement or set of strikes, the knowledge to reconstitute them may be there for good." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/world/asia/north-korea-nuclear-weapons-missiles-sanctions.html?_r=0

 

[MiKT]

20 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

I think a really good sanction would be to stop them being able to buy missiles and technology. They are not making the missiles or getting them off ebay.

Right.

 

Why doesn't he sanction Malaysia and Singapore and other countries (maybe you know where) that still deal with NK?

 

I don't mean "you" personally. 555. But if you do...............

Edited April 25, 2017 by MiKT

[IAMHERE]

What sanctions have not already been placed on North Korea. The fact that there are some sanctions not applied already tells me the rest of the world is not willing to take on the North Koreans. 

I believe the US or Japan should develop the Neutron Bomb and use it against the North Koreans.

Also guarantee China that the US , South Korea, and Japan will take all the North Korean refugees that cross into China because of the Neutron Bombs. China is only worried about the refugee problem.

[ilostmypassword]

4 minutes ago, IAMHERE said:

What sanctions have not already been placed on North Korea. The fact that there are some sanctions not applied already tells me the rest of the world is not willing to take on the North Koreans. 

I believe the US or Japan should develop the Neutron Bomb and use it against the North Koreans.

Also guarantee China that the US , South Korea, and Japan will take all the North Korean refugees that cross into China because of the Neutron Bombs. China is only worried about the refugee problem.

No, China is not only worried about the refugee problem. It's also worried about having a U.S. ally right on its border.

[ilostmypassword]

8 hours ago, baboon said:

It has been done before and proved a roaring success, not...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/810276/posts

One ship,

[baboon]

21 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

One ship,

And even that one they had to let go!

[ilostmypassword]

1 minute ago, baboon said:

And even that one they had to let go!

And far from North Korea.

[baboon]

6 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

And far from North Korea.

Do you have any point to make at all? The Middle East is far from the Korean peninsula, yes. I think most of us are aware of that...

Edited April 25, 2017 by baboon

[ilostmypassword]

6 minutes ago, baboon said:

Do you have any point to make at all? The Middle East is far from the Korean peninsula, yes. I think most of us are aware of that...

What I meant by that was that it's a lot less potentially dangerous to stop a ship far from its mother country than in or near its territorial waters.

[baboon]

6 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

What I meant by that was that it's a lot less potentially dangerous to stop a ship far from its mother country than in or near its territorial waters.

It shouldn't have been stopped on the high seas at all, but I see what you are saying.

[boomerangutang]

Perhaps less-than-hot-heads are prevailing in the Oval Office.  The danger of Nuke war was about 80% last week, but has gone down to about 73% this week, due to the items mentioned in the OP.  

[hawker9000]

Hopefully Donald has some low-paid junior deputy no-name assistant to an assistant to an assistant flunky who'll be handling these "calls to the UN".  THe UN: a total waste of time, and a bloated nest of uselessness no sane person would ever take seriously.

[ilostmypassword]

8 minutes ago, hawker9000 said:

Hopefully Donald has some low-paid junior deputy no-name assistant to an assistant to an assistant flunky who'll be handling these "calls to the UN".  THe UN: a total waste of time, and a bloated nest of uselessness no sane person would ever take seriously.

Donald Trump disagrees with you.

"Ahead of a lunch meeting with the ambassadors from Security Council member countries, Trump called the international institution an "underperformer" but said he hopes it can better deal with threats around the world.

"The United Nations is an underperformer, but it has huge potential ... I think that the United Nations has tremendous potential," Trump said...

"The status quo in North Korea is also unacceptable, and the council must be prepared to impose additional and stronger sanctions on North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile programs," he said."

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/24/trump-united-nations-is-an-underperformer-with-huge-potential.html

[Scott]

An inflammatory post has been removed.   Personal, inflammatory remarks will earn suspensions.  

[MiKT]

19 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

What sanctions have not already been placed on North Korea. The fact that there are some sanctions not applied already tells me the rest of the world is not willing to take on the North Koreans. 

I believe the US or Japan should develop the Neutron Bomb and use it against the North Koreans.

Also guarantee China that the US , South Korea, and Japan will take all the North Korean refugees that cross into China because of the Neutron Bombs. China is only worried about the refugee problem.

No problem, I have just seen this on yahoo:

Neutron Bomb at Amazon - Low Prices on Neutron Bomb.

Also offering free delivery!

 

What is it you don't know about the topology of NK that makes you think a Neutron bomb would work?

 

You really believe that China is only worried about the refugee problem?

 

What makes you think there would be any people alive to become refugee's? The only people who would be wiped out by a Neutron Bomb would be the civilian population, the military are very well dug in.

 

Anyway, China could easily assimilate the entire population of NK if they really had to, its only a drop in the Chinese Millions (Billions).

 

But what makes you think that China (or Russia) would stand by and let the US drop any kind of nuclear weapon on their borders?

 

This is what China is worried about, they don't like the NK much, but they don't want US troops on their border now any more than they did in 1950 and they certainly won't stand by and let the US drop nuclear bombs on NK, it will be the 3rd world war.

 

Sanctions that really work, including on places like Malaysia are the only viable solution to getting rid of this NK gangster cult.

 

Of course if they actually really are stupid enough to start lobbing nuclear bombs about, probably the Chinese will finish them of themselves.

 

Edited April 26, 2017 by MiKT