New sanctions on North Korea are welcomed

THE US ambassador to the United Nations has welcomed tough new sanctions against North Korea as an “unambiguous message to Pyongyang that further defiance will invite further punishments and isolation”.

The UN Security Council last night unanimously approved sanctions in response to the latest launch of a ballistic missile that Pyongyang says is capable of reaching anywhere on the US mainland.

The sanctions approved in the council resolution include sharply cutting limits on North Korea’s imports of refined oil and forcing North Koreans working overseas to return home

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, and last-minute changes to the text. One of those changes was raising the deadline for North Korean workers to return home from 12 months to 24 months.

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.

This represents a nearly 90 per cent ban of refined products, which are key to North Korea’s economy, and a reduction from the two million barrels a year the council authorised in September.

The new sanctions also ban the export of food products, machinery, electrical equipment, earth and stones, wood and vessels from North Korea.

Britain’s UN ambassador Matthew Rycroft said the Security Council is sending “a very strong united signal to the North Korean regime that enough is enough, that they must stop their nuclear programme”.

Enough is enough, they must stop their nuclear programme. Matthew Rycroft, Britain’s UN ambassador.