North Korea hit with wider UN sanctions
NEW YORK The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions against North Korea yesterday in response to its latest launch of a ballistic missile that Pyongyang says is capable of reaching anywhere on the United States mainland.
The resolution adopted by the council includes sharply lower limits on North Korea’s refined oil imports, the return home of all North Koreans working overseas within 24 months, and a crackdown on ships smuggling banned items, including coal and oil, to and from the country.
But the resolution didn’t include even harsher measures sought by the Trump administration that would have banned all oil imports and frozen the international assets of the government and its leader, Kim Jong-un.
The resolution, drafted by the US and negotiated with the North’s closest ally, China, drew criticism from Russia for the short time the 13 other council nations had to consider the draft, and last-minute changes to the text.
Two of those changes were extending the deadline for North Korean workers to return home from 12 months to 24 months – which Russia said was the minimum needed – and reducing the number of North Koreans being put on the UN sanctions blacklist from 19 to 15.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley said after the vote that ‘‘the unity this council has shown in levelling these unprecedented sanctions is a reflection of the international outrage at the Kim regime’s actions’’.
China’s deputy UN ambassador, Wu Haitao, said it was ‘‘imperative’’ to pursue a peaceful settlement and resume dialogue and negotiations at an early date, warning that resorting to force ‘‘will only lead to disastrous consequences’’.
Haley recalled that the previous sanctions resolution, approved in September, when combined with earlier measures, would ban over 90 per cent of North Korea’s exports reported in 2016.
That resolution, adopted in response to North Korea’s sixth and strongest nuclear test explosion on September 3, banned North Korea from importing all natural gas liquids and condensates. It also banned all textile exports, and prohibited any country from authorising new work permits for North Korean workers – two key sources of hard currency for the isolated nation.
Fifteen North Koreans, including 13 representing banks overseas, and the Ministry of the AP People’s Armed Forces have been added to the UN sanctions blacklist.
North Korea’s test on November 29 of its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile yet was its 20th launch of a ballistic missile this year, and added to fears that it will soon have a military arsenal that can viably target the US mainland. AP