N. Korea hit by new sanctions:

Asia

Power

The UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Wednesday aimed at cutting the Asian country’s annual export revenue by a quarter in response to Pyongyang’s fifth and largest nuclear test in September.

The 15-member council unanimously adopted a resolution to slash North Korea’s biggest export, coal, by about 60 percent with an annual sales cap of $400.9 million, or 7.5 million metric tonnes, whichever is lower.

The US-drafted resolution also bans North Korean copper, nickel, silver and zinc exports — and the sale of statues. Pyongyang is famous for building huge, socialist-style statues which it exports mainly to African countries.

The United States was realistic about what the new sanctions on North Korea — also known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) — will achieve, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told the council after the vote.

“No resolution in New York will likely, tomorrow, persuade Pyongyang to cease its relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons. But this resolution imposes unprecedented costs on the DPRK regime for defying this council’s demands,” she said.

“In total, this resolution will slash by at least $800 million per year the hard currency that the DPRK has to fund its prohibited weapons programs, which constitutes a full 25 percent of the DPRK’s entire export revenues.” (RTRS)