North Korea has behaved aggressively for a long time, as the Communist regime has been firing missiles and testing nuclear weapons. The Trump administration dislikes this unacceptable behavior, so, the United States moved for UN sanctions against Pyongyang. These measures to stop the regime of Kim Jong-un are being undermined by the government of Putin because Russia has been supplying fuel to North Korea. America has also complained that China could do more to punish Pyongyang, but the Chinese government has taken no drastic actions. The North Korean economy is impoverished, so, global cooperation has the potential to work wonders.
The ships supply false information
According to a report by Newsweek, at least eight ships from North Korea went to the Russian port of Vladivostok to get fuel and then stated that they were going to China and South Korea. This was a lie because the ships went to a North Korean port carrying between 545 and 2,000 tons of cargo. One of the ships is the Ma Du San, and it got fuel from Independent Petroleum, which is a Russian company. The US government complained about it and wanted to impose sanctions, but the ship was not named.
Pyongyang has a web
Russia isn't the only country that cooperates with the Pyongyang regime, as there are also key players in other nations. The US government accused two companies from Singapore (Transatlantic Partners and Velmur Management) of laundering money for North Korean banks to get petroleum products, according to a report by Reuters.
China has also been essential for North Korea because they have ties through trade.
A weak economy
The North Korean population is impoverished because there was a famine in the 90s that starved millions and killed ten percent of the inhabitants according to a report by Vox. This country is mainly an agricultural society, and just 20 percent of the territory is arable land.
The development of weapons puts a lot of pressure on its weak and backward economy, so, sanctions will be devastating.
Global cooperation
The only way to stop the North Korean nuclear program is to exert pressure on its economy, the help of China and Russia is essential to get it. According to a report by Newsweek, Trump praised Beijing and Moscow because they accepted the sanctions against Pyongyang, but we can see that North Korea is helped indirectly. Just an honest policy will be able to deprive Kim Jong-un of the economic resources to develop nuclear weapons.
