With North Korea seemingly intent on going ahead with its planned rocket launch, the international community must decide how it can punish a country that has proved largely impervious to past sanctions.
The options open to the United States and its allies are limited by several factors, not least that individually and collectively they have already exercised most of what little leverage they have over the isolated state.
On a truly multilateral level – meaning UN sanctions – they are wholly dependent on the stance taken by veto-wielding China which, in the past, has proved resistant to the tougher measures demanded by other nations.
“China sets the maximum response level in the Security Council when it comes to North Korea,” said a senior South Korean government official. “So the existing list of UN sanctions on the North is essentially China’s list.”
After Pyongyang’s last failed rocket launch in April, the United States, European Union, South Korea and Japan put forward 40 state companies they wanted added to a UN blacklist of North Korean firms.
China consented to only three, although it also agreed to a Security Council statement warning of further action if the North made a new attempt.