The UN Security Council unanimously demanded that Pyongyang halt its missile program (AFP Photo/KENA BETANCUR)
AFP: North Korea tests push US to action on Chinese banks
The failure of UN sanctions to even slow North Korea's nuclear missile program has many in Washington pushing for unilateral US action against the finance houses doing business with Pyongyang -- a move that would set up a confrontation with China.
World powers maintained a show of unity on Tuesday when the UN Security Council voted unanimously to condemn North Korea's latest missile test, in which it provocatively fired an intermediate range weapon over Japan and into the ocean.
But the quick condemnation did not arrive with any promise of a new UN sanctions resolution, amid reluctance from China and Russia to turn the screw too hard or too fast.
US President Donald Trump's administration was frustrated by the outcome.
Trump vented some of this anger at the slow pace of diplomacy on Wednesday in one of his daily Twitter blasts, declaring: "The US has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!"
Read more ....
WNU Editor: China will have to decide .... whether they like it or not. A few billion in trade with North Korea .... or $500 billion with the U.S. .... and you can't have both.