Politics

Unable to make de-escalation progress using conventional diplomatic means at the United Nations, on Monday South Korean President Moon Jae-in proposed that the U.N. Security Council hold serious discussions about imposing an energy and capital blockade on North Korea, by cutting off oil supplies to Kim's regime coupled with a block of North Korean sources of foreign currency, the South Korean president's office said. Moon discussed the idea with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, during a phone call, according to South Korea's Blue House.

U.S. United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is escalating the rhetoric from Trump's "we'll see" comment and aggressive tweets as she tells an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, that "enough is enough" and that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, is "begging for war" with his "abusive use of missiles."

Haley admonished the council, urging the "strongest possible" response...

An angry China slammed President Trump's threat on Monday to cut off trade with countries that deal with North Korea, as "unacceptable" and "unfair." As a reminder, following Sunday's nuclear test by North Korea, Trump threatened to increase economic sanctions and halt trade with any country doing business with North Korea, a threat he has used before without following through. That list would include China, the U.S.’s biggest trading partner, which accounted for about a sixth of its overseas commerce.

Barely had the market digested news of the latest, 6th - and this time allegedly thermonuclear - test by North Korea (with the South Korean Kospi cutting initial losses of as much as 1.6% in half on yet another BTFNWD ramp), when Yonhap reported that South Korea's spy agency said it had detected that North Korea is making preparations for a possible intercontinental ballistic missile launch, a move that would further raise tensions a day after it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear detonation.

Authored by Soren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,