The Last Days of Kim Jong-il by Jr. Bruce Bechtol

Author:Jr. Bruce Bechtol [Bruce Bechtol, Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Potomac Books Inc.
Published: 2013-07-31T21:00:00+00:00

Containing North Korea’s Support for Terrorism: Are Current Methods Effective?

The United States has approached the issue of North Korea’s support for terrorism, which in the post–Cold War era is largely through proliferation, using two key methods—the Proliferation Security Initiative and economic sanctions. The Bill Clinton administration had relaxed some sanctions against North Korea by the end of its term, while the succeeding Bush administration chose to initiate more sanctions in its second term largely owing to North Korea’s nuclear program.47 The Obama administration initiated numerous other sanctions following North Korea’s rogue state behavior in 2009 and 2010.48 The other U.S. approach to North Korean proliferation is to initiate and maintain PSI. This effort involves nearly a hundred member states using primarily maritime means but also aircraft to interdict shipments of WMD or other weapons that are proliferated illegally.49

The United States initiated PSI in 2003 largely as a result of North Korea’s aggressive proliferation to rogue states and non-state actors, but it is also aimed at other states that engaged in similar behavior.50 As PSI has grown in acceptance with other nation-states, the level of cooperation has increased. Several nations that one would not typically think of as working with the United States to counter proliferation have extended their cooperation. In 2009, the United Arab Emirates confiscated a shipment originating in North Korea that reportedly contained components and detonators for 122mm rockets. Israeli officials have since stated that the shipment was intended for Hezbollah.51 Another large shipment—this time on a Russian-made cargo plane bound for Iran—was interdicted when it stopped in Thailand. The aircraft had on board more than thirty-five tons of military equipment, including rockets and rocket-propelled grenades. Officials believe the shipment was also bound for Hezbollah through Iran.52 The same year, Greece confiscated the North Korean cargo of a French-owned and German-flagged ship carrying chemical weapons suits to Syria, some of which may have also been bound for Hezbollah.53 In 2011, forces for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization intercepted a ship carrying a North Korean cargo of fifteen tons of rockets, surface-to-air missiles, and explosives to Eritrea. The United Nations has Eritrea under an arms embargo because of allegations that its government is involved in training and supplying weapons to Al Qaeda and has connections with Somali Islamic rebels.54 While the examples previously stated are important (and are only a few of many examples), it is also important to consider that because of the skill the North Korean traders use, evidence indicates that the vast majority of shipments continue to get through. Nevertheless, the pressure put on North Korea makes it more difficult to conduct illicit proliferation activities.

As discussed earlier, during both the Clinton and Bush administrations, the United States had imposed at various levels economic sanctions on North Korea that included measures taken by both economic and military entities. But after North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests of 2009, the United Nations Security Council initiated Resolution 1874 and adopted it on June 12, 2009. This resolution not

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.