Administration lacking a detailed coherent strategy on North Korea

Americans, our allies, and the rest of the world have been on a razor’s edge over the past weeks because of the irresponsible rhetoric and bluster coming from Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump. There isn’t very much to say about Kim Jong Un. But we used to be able to rely on the cool-headed, composed leadership from the Oval Office to steer us through potential crises. No more, it seems.

As a member of Congress, a member of the Armed Services Committee, and a U.S. Marine, I take my oversight of the executive branch seriously – especially when the very lives of our troops and citizens are at stake.

{mosads}What we have seen over the past few months – the incredible, invisible USS Carl Vinson, presidential insults to the South Korean nation and people, and unhinged tweet storms, all with the specter of unspeakable but avoidable violence – is simply unacceptable. What are we doing? Why are we doing it? How are we getting there? The White House’s policy is a jumbled word cloud of nothingness. What we need instead is a real strategy to calm tensions and advance U.S. interests.

Yesterday, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tried put Humpty Dumpty back together again with respect to North Korea in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. But other than vague calls for China to “do more” we saw little in the way of specificity. I agree that our goal in North Korea should be nuclear disarmament in the long term, but we also need normalization in the medium term and deescalation in the short term.

To provide more meat on the vague references to diplomacy and China in the Wall Street Journal, we need a specific plan. Namely, we need to significantly increase our sanctions and compel China to enforce the ones that are already in place. North Korean elites live in luxury as the regular people around them starve. We have existing sanctions that ban the import of luxury goods – Mercedes Benzes, Johnny Walker whiskey, cigars and the rest of the nicer things in life. However, criminal profiteers in northern China routinely break the rules and enable a thriving black market that feeds the feudal lords in Pyongyang. We need to push China to crack down and enforce these existing sanctions that Beijing has already agreed to back.

We also need to secure more sanctions from the UN Security Council now that we face a declared threat to our fellow Americans in Guam. The United States should push for additional export sanctions on the two-thirds of North Korean products that were unaffected by the sanctions imposed by the Council last week. Why should North Korea be able to play in the world marketplace while they make these threats?

We should also push for import restrictions above the existing bans on luxury goods. The Kim regime is not self-sufficient, requiring constant food and fuel imports to function. We should push for fuel restrictions into North Korea and begin the UN discussion on food assistance. Even if the Kim regime doesn’t care about its people, China does – if only out of fear of what might come from the collapse of the North Korean state. And if China wants to keep Kim around to maintain that stability, we should have a discussion about what else they are willing to do instead of import sanctions.

To gain China’s cooperation, we need to think about what China cares about – stability, both along their borders and internally, continued economic growth, and face-saving for President Xi Jinping as he seeks to consolidate his power within the Chinese government. Only when we acknowledge all of these interests can we find the common ground to achieve greater stability on the Korean peninsula and – if necessary – apply the appropriate pressure to compel Chinese cooperation.

For example, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Tillerson could advise their Chinese counterparts that if they do not cooperate in punishing Kim, the U.S. Treasury will designate between 110 and 130 Chinese, Indian and Pakistani individuals, small companies, and banks that profit from trade with North Korea in violation of global sanctions. These persons and entities will include those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party, local government in Jilin and Liaoning Province, and financiers elsewhere in China complicit in money laundering of North Korean funds. And if Donald Trump doesn’t act, the U.S Congress can and should.

That’s hardball diplomacy, and real negotiation. That Treasury Secretary Mnuchin didn’t co-sign the Wall Street Journal op-ed is evidence enough that this administration is bereft of actual plans to secure our vital interests. The appalling inadequacy of the president, secretary of State, and other Trump administration officials should highlight that this is a crisis of confidence as much as anything else. But it should not blind us to realistic options if we hold our nerve, think strategically, and aggressively pursue the best interests of the United States. If our diplomats take these steps, there’s every chance that we can stop worrying about thousands of dead civilians – including Americans – in Seoul, Japan, and Guam, and return to the long-term pursuit of peaceful de-nuclearization in Korea.

You know, what the State Department used to do.

Gallego represents Arizona’s 7th District and is a member of the Armed Services Committee.

The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.