UN plays hard ball

Security Council agrees to increased sanctions on North Korea

THE UN Security Council has unanimously approved new sanctions on North Korea but not the toughest-ever measures sought by the Trump administration.

The US had wanted to ban all oil imports and freeze international assets of the government and its leader, Kim Jongun. But the resolution, responding to Pyongyang’s sixth and strongest nuclear test explosion on September 3, does ban North Korea from importing all natural gas liquids and condensates.

It also bans all textile exports and prohibits any country from authorising new work permits for North Korean workers – two key sources of hard currency for the northeast Asian nation.

As for energy, it caps Pyongyang’s imports of crude oil at the level of the past 12 months, and it limits the import of refined petroleum products to 2 million barrels a year.

The watered-down resolution does not include sanctions that the US wanted on North Korea’s national airline and the army.

Nonetheless, US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council after the vote that “these are by far the strongest measures ever imposed on North Korea”.

But she stressed that “these steps only work if all nations implement them completely and aggressively”.

Ms Haley noted that the council was meeting on the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack. In a clear message to North Korean threats to attack the US, she said: “We will never forget the lesson that those who have evil inten- tions must be confronted.

“Today we are saying the world will never accept a nuclear armed North Korea. We are done trying to prod the regime to do the right thing.”

She said instead the US is taking steps to prevent it “from doing the wrong thing”.

Ms Haley said the US did not take pleasure in strengthening sanctions and reiterated that the US did not want war.