Nikki Haley, US-led NK sanctions pass UN council 15-0. China and Russia join

[Matty]

It is the largest sanctions bill against NK in history, and bans their coal from being exported to other nations, which will cost them more one billion a year.

Outstanding work by Haley. Getting China and Russia to support this was probably no easy feat.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

I have never doubted Nikki Haley's talent as a negotiator and diplomat. Well done on her part. The only member of the administration I trust. Big accomplishment.

[Technocracy Timmy]

It's beautiful! 😍

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

I wouldn't be surprised if Trump is now seriously considering handing Nikki the state department. She's the only thing that makes him look remotely good on the world stage.

[GoTfan]

Make her Secretary of State, now.

[NewYorkExpress]

I'm actually shocked China didn't veto this, given they'll just ignore it anyways to avoid regime change in Pyongyang.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I wouldn't be surprised if Trump is now seriously considering handing Nikki the state department. She's the only thing that makes him look remotely good on the world stage.

Competence will always place behind sycophancy when it comes to Trump. So who knows.

[ProudModerate2]

Russia and China.
Wow.
Maybe this will really put the pressure on them now.
(But, do you think China will be making back-door deals for coal with NK ?)

[Badger]

Russia and China.
Wow.
Maybe this will really put the pressure on them now.
(But, do you think China will be making back-door deals for coal with NK ?)

To the extent they can be the ultimate Arbiter of North Korea's Behavior, certainly.

Still, a highly positive sign. I have to say I am pleasantly surprised to see something, literally anything coming out of this Administration that hasn't suffered from reverse Midas Touch. I would Echo the previous question about how much Haley had to do with this, but off the top my head I have to guesstimate probably a decent bit at least. Twitter bird agree she was involved, kudos to her. She would be a good candidate to take over for tillerson's inevitable departure from state. Or at least not nearly as bad as most others. She'll get it because she's a rising star and Menches to be sufficiently sycophantic to Trump.

Now she can just keep us out of War when Trump tries to certify I ran as non-compliant with the nuke deal come hell or high water this October....

[pbrower2a]

It could be the missiles. North Korean missiles directed against the mainland USA must overfly China and Russia, which would make such a launch aggression against China and Russia.

 

[SATW]

Loving Nikki and the job she is doing!

[GeorgiaModerate]

It could be the missiles. North Korean missiles directed against the mainland USA must overfly China and Russia, which would make such a launch aggression against China and Russia.

Only if they go the wrong way.   A missile launch from NK toward the US would go over the North Pacific.  The path would not overfly China or Russia.

[Beet]

Why is this thread all about Nikki Haley's career and not the issue at hand? For all we know she didn't have much to do with this, negotiations have been going through many administration officials. For all we know this is another empty promise and in a few months we'll find out North Korea's trade in these minerals continues on as ever. For all we know this has zero impact on North Korea's missile program and they continue testing as before, and develop more even bigger and more advanced missiles. If that is true, will we suddenly see a flood of people denouncing Nikki Haley and saying her career is over? I hope so.

[Illiniwek]

This was well done. Keep it up.

[AndyHogan14]

I was very uneasy when she was given the UN ambassadorship (kind of like every member of the Trump team), but I have been pleasantly surprised by her performance in the role. She should be handed the State Department and if she ends up being the GOP nominee at some point in the future and she's running against a crazy Democrat (The Rock, Zuckerberg, etc), I would almost certainly vote for her.

[AN63093]

Good news, of course, and nice to see something, anything, being done, but Beet has a pretty good point.  Realistically, these sanctions are unlikely to do much, if anything.

NK has been under sanctions of one type or another since they first began testing in 2006, and there is no evidence that they have done anything to stop NK's nuclear weapons program.

Second, while having China and Russia "on board" is a nice sound-byte, I wouldn't make too much of it.  We are going to be relying on them to actually implement the sanctions, and in reality, there's a pretty good chance they won't and there's no way to enforce this.  China and Russia supported the last round of sanctions last year as well, on paper at least, but they ultimately didn't implement any actual economic pressure.

Russia actually increased its use of North Korea migrant workers this year, so while the 'ban' may prevent new ones, there's already plenty there and they're gonna keep sending money back.

Another example, while the last round of sanctions had a cap on coal imports, China didn't even attempt to meet that for months, and when they finally did, it's been widely suggested that China's just fibbing the numbers.  I don't know why we wouldn't expect more of the same with this round.

Finally, one of the biggest elements in NK/China trade are oil exports, and the sanctions don't even touch that.

So, it's a feel-good story, but unfortunately, once you scratch past the surface and go past the headlines, you realize there's actually nothing here and very little to suggest anything will come of this.  Maybe if we're really lucky it brings Kim closer to the negotiating table, but I think the chances of that are pretty low, maybe less than 5%.

[Young Conservative]

Loving Nikki and the job she is doing!

[Kingpoleon]

Russia hates North Korea, probably more than we do.....