A total oil embargo on North Korea would only lead to war, as it did with imperial Japan

A total oil embargo against North Korea would be likely to provoke the same result as it did with imperial Japan , war with the US and friends. Last week, following a series of missile launches and an underground nuclear test, the US ambassador to the UN declared North Korea to be begging for war. This week, the 15-member UN Security Council unanimously passed a raft of new sanctions, including a universal ban on purchasing North Korean textiles (the country’s second-largest export, after coal) and the cessation of all gas exports to the isolated state. What’s more interesting is what was culled from America original proposal: the use of force, if deemed necessary, to board and inspect ships to enforce these economic sanctions; an asset freeze; a travel ban for Kim Jong-un. China and Russia know that a complete oil cut-off would heighten North Korea’s self-destructive tendencies and hasten its collapse. Sanctions have not worked and now cannot work. North Korea is not going to give up.