https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18968/us-presidents-refuse-to-protect-the-us-from-north
The U.S. has the power to stop North Korean missile tests but has chosen not to do so. This is true not only of the Biden administration but also its predecessors. The U.S. has continually decided to adopt feeble options.
Chinese banks have been laundering the North’s proceeds of criminal and prohibited activity for decades. The Trump administration in June 2017 designated, pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, China’s Bank of Dandong to be of “primary money laundering concern.” The designation meant the bank could no longer clear dollar transactions through the U.S. banking system.
If the designation was meant as a signal, Beijing ignored it. And the Chinese had assessed the situation correctly. Trump’s administration in 2018 decided not to enforce money-laundering laws against two of the “Big Four” Chinese banks, Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank, which were handling suspicious transactions involving North Korea. Such a designation would have put these banks out of business everywhere outside China, and Beijing, as a practical matter, would have had to stop money-laundering for North Korea.
As a result of inaction, President Trump gave Chinese institutions free passes to violate American statutes. The administration’s decision, an abrogation of its responsibilities to uphold the law, was deeply prejudicial to its efforts to disarm the Kim regime.
The Biden administration has continued Trump’s lax posture.
The administration has the goods on the North Koreans and the Chinese but has continually failed to act. “This failure is a choice. The money Kim Jong Un obtains by fraud, computer hacking, and ransomware and which he uses to build bombs to threaten us is being laundered through our banks. We’re giving Xi Jinping and Kim de facto immunity to keep right on doing it.” — Joshua Stanton, sanctions expert, to Gatestone Institute, October, 2022
North Korea’s accelerated testing of missiles is a reminder that Kim Jong Un is quickly developing the power to destroy American cities. Perhaps the only things his technicians cannot do is miniaturize a nuclear device and shield it from heat upon reentry to the atmosphere. These are, however, capabilities his military, perhaps with China’s help, will develop soon.
Americans might wonder how one of the most destitute regimes on earth can build weapons capable of killing most every American. They may also wonder why Washington has done almost nothing to stop the North Koreans from selling their weapons to Iran, among others.
