U.N. imposes new sanctions on N. Korea
North Korean exports would be cut by about $1 billion.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley hailed“the single largest economic sanctions package ever leveled against” the regime.
The U.N. Security Council imposed the “most stringent” sanctions on North Korea that would ban exports of coal, iron, lead and seafood in response to Pyongyang’s testing of two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month that could target the U.S.
The penalties agreed to on Saturday by all the 15 council members aim to cut North Korean exports by about $1 billion a year. They would also ban “the opening of new joint ventures or cooperative entities with” North Korea, and cap the number of North Koreans working in other countries at current levels. Existing joint ventures would also be prevented from expanding their operations.
“The price the North Korean leadership will pay for its continued nuclear and missile development will be the loss of one-third of its exports and hard currency,” said Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. “This is the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation.”
Some foreign-policy experts cautioned, though, that sanctions alone, while economically harmful, may not halt North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s push to develop nuclear weapons. The move came as National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster warned that President Donald Trump wasn’t ruling out a “preventive war” to stop North Korea.
The U.N. sanctions probably won’t hinder North Korean leadership for now, Thomas Byrne, president of the New York-based Korea Society, said in a telephone interview.
“You need deeper sanctions over a longer period of time, like years, before you can see if North Korea changes its behavior,” Byrne said. “The sanctions will have an economic impact but little effect on the strategic intent to develop ballistic missiles.”
The U.S. and China had been negotiating for about a month on the draft text released Saturday. Sanctions against North Korea require buy-in from Beijing because it is the isolated country’s biggest trading partner by far. Haley had recently blamed China and Russia for preventing stronger measures against Kim’s regime, but on Saturday she personally thanked the Chinese for their help.
The restrictions are the third set of sanctions imposed on North Korea in the past 18 months in an effort to halt the country developing its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities. The Security Council imposed penalties in March 2016 and again in November after Pyongyang conducted nuclear tests and launched a rocket.
Trump isn’t ruling out a “preventive war” to stop North Korea from being able to threaten the U.S., McMaster said in an interview with MSNBC broadcast Saturday. The danger posed by North Korea was “a grave threat,” he said.