UN backs sanctions on N.Korea after missile test

THE UN Security Council has unanimously approved tough new sanctions on 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 France’s UN ambassador Francois Delattre.

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

The resolution, drafted by the United States and negotiated with China, drew criticism from Russia for the short time the 13 other council nations had to consider the text.

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

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”.

The resolution caps crude oil imports at four million barrels a year. And it caps imports of refined oil products, including diesel and kerosene, at 500,000 barrels a year.