US must have stomach for sanctions on Pyongyang and Beijing

Last week the White House imposed sanctions against a Chinese bank, two individuals, and a shipping firm for facilitating illegal transactions with the rogue state. This is only the very beginning of the necessary sanctions squeeze, writes Mr. Grant Newsham in a piece published in Asia Times. Mr. Newsham responds to the conventional wisdom that "sanctions have failed" by underscoring that no, real sanctions have never been tried. As a for instance, he points out that there has never been a crack down on North Korea’s easy-to-uncover global moneymaking operations. The key issue is whether there is the will to undertake, rough, punitive sanctions against North Korea that bite.

Grant Newsham is the CEO of the Risk Mitigation Foundation's affiliated 3rd Rail organization and a Foundation Advisory Board member.