It's unlikely that sanctions will work to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, former Ambassador Nicholas Burns said Monday, but it was still a "victory" for the Trump administration to convince Russia and China to join in a unanimous U.N. Security Council vote to approve them.
"For us, the Americans, the real danger is in a couple of years, they could have the capacity to have a nuclear weapon that could reach the western United States," Burns said on CBS News. "That's an unacceptable threat, so I think what we're likely to see is a continuing ratcheting up of the sanctions by the U.S. in the future."
However, Burns said he does not think the sanctions will work because China won't join in enforcing them.
"They provide most of the energy and the food," said Burns. "Ultimately, the Chinese don't want to see very tough sanctions and pressure on North Korea because they don't want to see the regime collapse, they don't want to see refugees go into China."
China also does not want to see a Korean peninsula that is unified by the South Korean government while aligned with the United States, he said.
"That would be a victory strategically for this long-running competition between China and the United States and Asia," Burns told CBS.
North Korea, he continued, is "very different" from Iran.
"They're a trading nation," Burns said of Iran. "They wanted to be connected economically to the rest of the world, so the sanctions worked to drive them to the table. North Korea is a hermit kingdom. They don't trade with any other countries. I think the leader Kim Jong-un believes the missiles are the ultimate protection against any foe, most of all the United States."
Burns said he hopes that won't mean the United States will have to acquiesce to North Korea, pointing out that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has hinted the United States should talk to them, "not to be nice to them, but perhaps come up with an arrangement where we freeze their testing of nuclear weapons and also ICBMs, intercontinental ballistic missiles. That's a real threat to our county."
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