UN imposes new sanctions against North Korea
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted unanimously in favor of imposing new sanctions on North Korea following its latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test.
Members of the UN Security Council voted 15-0 on Friday in favor of a resolution that seeks to ban almost 90 percent of the North-bound exports of refined petroleum products by limiting them to 500,000 barrels a year, according to Press TV.
The newly adopted measure would also restrict the export of crude oil to the North at four million barrels a year. Furthermore, it demands the repatriation of North Koreans working abroad within 12 months.
In a bid to further strangle North Korea’s external sources of funding, the Us-drafted resolution prevents the country from exporting a number of items, including machinery, food products, lumber, electrical equipment, vessels, and other products and resources.
It also forbids the export of industrial equipment, machinery, transportation vehicles, and industrial metals to the North. Furthermore, the new measure has subjected the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces and 15 North Korean nationals to a global asset freeze and travel ban.
The resolution also allows other countries to confiscate, examine and freeze any vessel in their ports or territorial waters that they believe was shipping banned cargo or involved in prohibited activities.
On November 29, North Korea announced that it had successfully tested an ICBM in a “breakthrough” that places the US mainland within range of its nuclear weapons, whose warheads could endure re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere. The controversial test drew quick and widespread condemnations, with Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the UN, threatening to destroy Pyongyang in case of a possible war.
North Korea has been under a raft of crippling UN sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear tests as well as multiple rocket and missile launches. Pyongyang has firmly defended its military program as a deterrent against the hostile policies of the US and its regional allies, including South Korea and Japan.
North Korea has already demanded a halt to what it called “brutal sanctions” imposed by the UNSC, saying the previous bans imposed after Pyongyang’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test on September 3 constitute “genocide.”