This article was originally published by Sputnik News
With harsh new sanctions placed on Pyongyang, Sarah Sloan of the ANSWER Coalition talks to Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear to discuss the impact of the move, as well as America’s upcoming war games simulating an invasion of North Korea.
“[The sanctions] include mandatory inspections of cargo that is leaving and entering North Korea by sea or air, a ban of all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to Pyongyang, and the expulsion of diplomats from the North, who engage in what the resolution describes as illicit activities,'” Sloan tells Loud & Clear host Brian Becker.
“The resolution also bans the export of coal, iron, and iron ore that are being used to fund North Korea’s nuclear or ballistic missile programs – allegedly, of course – and it prohibits all exports of gold, titanium ore, vanadium ore, and rare earth materials. It also bans aviation fuel exports to the country…”
This is only a small sampling of the many penalties placed on North Korea by the UN Security Council. The sanctions came in response to Pyongyang’s test of a nuclear bomb in January, as well a satellite launch last month, which the UN determined was a veiled attempt to demonstrate North Korea’s long-range ballistic missile capabilities.
While the United Nations insists that the sanctions will have no detrimental impact on the civilian population of the DPRK, collateral damage may be inevitable.
“And there too, they claimed that they were sanctioning military items,” she adds. “Sanctions really are a form of warfare. They’re used by the United States and other imperialist countries to try and have a quieter form of warfare.”
Sanctions can also only be yielded by powerful countries against smaller ones, like North Korea and Iraq.
“The reality is that in North Korea, the government has done everything it can to elevate the standard of living of the people to deal with the fact that it’s had this sanctions regime imposed on it, and that despite the sanctions…they’ve done everything in their power to try to support and preserve and keep the population as healthy as possible…”
These penalties also seem hypocritical given that world powers conduct the same type of tests for which Pyongyang is being punished. While the DPRK is being demonized for aggression, the United States is currently preparing to conduct military exercises which deliberately mimic an invasion of North Korea.
Pyongyang even offered to cease its nuclear programs if the United States agreed to end these war games, but Washington declined.
“It’s really an incredible thing where the United States works with South Korea…to carry out these war games immediately off the shores of North Korea that literally simulate the bombing, invasion, and complete destruction of the country at the same time that they’re openly threatening to carry out these acts if North Korea doesn’t bend to their will,” Sloan says.
“Everyone in North Korea…knows the great destruction that was reaped principally by the United States on the country…where there were millions of Korean people killed, where the country was divided, where families were separated, where the bombing carried out was so intense that the US bombers were complaining that they had no targets…left standing.”
