North Korea faces tough new sanctions from UN

The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously approved tough new sanctions against North Korea in response to its latest launch of a ballistic missile that Pyongyang says is capable of reaching anywhere on the US mainland.

The new sanctions approved in the council resolution include sharply lower limits on North Korea’s 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.

“We believe maximum pressure today is our best lever to a political and diplomatic solution tomorrow and our best antidote to the risk of war,” said Francois Delattre, France’s ambassador to the UN.

But the resolution does not include even harsher measures sought by the Trump administration, which would ban all oil imports and freeze international assets of the government and its leader, Kim Jong-un.

The resolution, drafted by the US and negotiated with China, drew criticism from Russia for the short time the 13 other council nations had to consider the text, and last-minute changes to it.

One of those changes was raising the deadline for North Korean workers to return home from 12 months to 24 months.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador, 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”.

The resolution caps crude oil imports at 4 million barrels a year. And it limits imports of refined oil products, including diesel and kerosene, to 500,000 barrels a year. This represents a nearly 90 per cent ban of refined products.

The sanctions also ban the export of food products, machinery, electrical equipment, earth and stones, wood and vessels from North Korea. And it bans all countries from exporting industrial equipment, vehicles and industrial metals to the country.

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.