North Korea dismisses ‘watered down’ UN sanctions with warning
● US has ‘evil intention’ and will ‘pay a due price’, says envoy
North Korea’s senior envoy to a leading UN disarmament body says his country “categorically” rejects a Security Council resolution imposing new sanctions over its nuclear and missile programmes.
Han Tae Song also lashed out at the US during a plenary session of the UN’S Conference on Disarmament, saying Pyongyang denounces Washington’s “evil intention” and would “make sure the US pays a due price”. The comments came as North Korea faced renewed criticism at the Geneva-based body of its recent ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests.
The UN Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions in a watered-down resolution without an oil import ban or inter- al asset freeze on the government and leader Kim Jong Un.
The resolution does ban North Korea from importing natural gas liquids and condensates, but it only caps Pyongyang’s imports of crude oil at the level of the last 12 months, and limits the import of refined petroleum products to two million barrels a year.
It also bans all textile exports and prohibits all countries from authorising new work permits for North Korean workers – two key sources of hard currency.
The watered-down resolution does not include sanctions the US wanted on North Korea’s national airline and the army, but US ambassador Nikki Haley told the council after the vote: “These are by far the strongest measures ever imposed on North Korea”.
She stressed: “These steps only work if all nations implement them completely and aggressively.”
Ms Haley noted 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 she said: “We will never forget the lesson that those who have evil intentions must be confronted.
“Today we are saying the world will never accept a nuclear armed North Korea.”
The final agreement was reached after negotiations between the US and China, the North’s ally and major trading partner.
Ms Haley said the resolution never would have happened without the “strong relationship” between President Donald Trump and Chi- nese President Xi Jinping.
But its provisions are a significant climbdown from the tough sanctions the Trump administration proposed last Tuesday, especially on oil, where a complete ban could have crippled North Korea’s economy.
Britain’s UN ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters who questioned the watering down of the initial US text that “there is a significant prize in keeping the whole of the Security Council united”.
Rycroft called the resolution “a very significant set of additional sanctions,” declaring that “we are tightening the screw, and we stand prepared to tighten it further”.
UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres welcomed the council’s “firm action” to send a clear message to north korea that it must comply with its international obligations, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Guterres also reaffirmed his commitment to work with all parties to reduce tensions and promote a peaceful political solution “and to strengthening communications channels,” Dujarric said.
French Ambassador Francois Delattre said: “We are facing not a regional but a global threat, not a virtual but an immediate threat, not a serious but an existential threat. Make no mistake about it, our firmness today is our best antidote to the risk of war, to the risk of confrontation, and our firmness today is our best tool for a political solution tomorrow,” he said.
China and Russia had called for a resolution focused on a political solution to the crisis.