US to Start ‘Disrupting’ North Korean Oil Smuggling

Well, this sure ease a fine way to attempt to ease tensions with North Korea.

An international coalition of American allies will start “detecting and disrupting”
North Korean oil smuggling operations at sea, reports the Washington Examiner.

“The United States has deployed aircraft and surface vessels to detect and disrupt these activities,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a news release.

Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, announced Friday they would aid “monitoring and surveillance activities against illicit maritime activities,” with a particular focus on ship-to-ship transfers of oil.

Make no mistake these are the neocons at work in the Trump administration.

According to the Examiner, Anthony Ruggiero, who joined the White House National Security Council’s Korea desk in July, said at the time that “more aggressive” measures should include a plan to “start to interdict these vessels” at sea.

Ruggiero, before joining the White House, was a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The leadership council of the FDD includes crazed neocon warhawk Joseph Lieberman and Gen. Michael Hayden, a former Director of the CIA and former Director of the NSA.

This, by the way, will also increase tensions with Russia and China, since both are likely providing oil to North Korea.


-RW