Professor Stephan Haggard on UN Sanctions on North Korea
Jun 12, 2009
By Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, Peterson Institute for International Economics
The United Nations Security Council voted today on a new round of sanctions on North Korea. These sanctions are politically significant, particularly in signaling the changing attitude of Beijing toward developments on the peninsula. However, it is highly unlikely that the sanctions, in themselves, will have immediate effect on North Korea’s nuclear program or the increasing threat of proliferation. North Korea has escalated in response to sanctions in the past, and there are ample reasons to believe that current policy is a function of domestic political developments as much as external inducements or constraints. Sanctions need to be coupled with a nuanced policy that includes a strongly-stated preference for a negotiated solution as well as the defensive measures of which the sanctions are only one part.
Click here for a brief discussion of the new sanctions.
