Exactly as predicted. President Trump is aboard AF1 headed to the EU. After discussions with the President this morning, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley delivers prepared remarks at the United Nations on the topic of North Korea’s continued military escalation.
Her full remarks are below. Note she discusses speaking with President Trump this morning about trade with China. Specifically note her comments about trade:
[02:59] “We have other methods of addressing those who threaten us, and of addressing those who supply the threats; we have great capabilities in the area of trade. President Trump has spoken repeatedly about this, I spoke with him at length about it this morning.”
“There are countries that are allowing, even encouraging, trade with North Korea, in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Such countries would also like to continue their trade arrangements with the United States, that’s not gonna happen. Our attitude on trade changes when countries do not take international security threats seriously.”
Before the path to a peaceful solution is entirely closed however, there remains more that the international community can and must do diplomatically and economically. In the coming days we will bring before the security council a resolution that raises the international response in a way that is proportionate to North Korea’s new escalation.
I will not detail the resolution here today, but the options are all known to us. If we are unified the international community can cut off the major sources of hard currency to the North Korean regime. We can restrict the flow of oil to their military and their weapons program; we can increase air and maritime restrictions; we can hold senior regime officials accountable.
[04:54] […] We will not look exclusively at North Korea, we will look at any country that continues to do business with this outlaw regime. We will not have patience for stalling or talking our way down to a watered-down resolution. Yesterday’s ICBM escalation requires an escalated diplomatic and economic response. Time is short; action is required; the world is on notice.
If we act together we can still prevent a catastrophe and we can rid the world of a grave threat. If we fail to act in a serious way there will be a different response. Much of the burden of enforcing U.N. sanctions rests with China. 90% of trade with North Korea is from China. We will work with China; we will work with any and every country that believes in peace, but we will not repeat the inadequate approaches of the past that have brought us to this dark day.
We cannot forget the multiple missile tests this year, or yesterday’s escalation. We cannot forget Otto Warmbier and others North Korea continues to hold. We cannot forget the threats to our friends and allies around the world. We will not forget, and we will not delay. Thank You.
In the final analysis, China will either take action to remove the North Korean threat, or the United States will collapse the economy of China with the biggest set of economic actions against China in the history of economic sanctions.
√ Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley will establish and highlight the action of the enablers.
√ U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad will politely request China to stop enabling and take action.
At the G20 – President Trump will politely ask Xi Jinping not to put him in a position of destroying the Chinese economy. Trump will remind Xi Jinping he really doesn’t want to, but he is being left no option.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue are the atomic economic sledgehammer…. awaiting orders.