UN acts on N. Korea sanctions

Dozens of ships and businesses on blacklist over smuggling

New York: The UN Security Council blacklisted 27 ships, 21 companies and a businessman for helping North Korea circumvent sanctions, as the United States keeps up pressure on Pyongyang despite its recent overtures toward talks, diplomats said.

Acting on a request from the United States, it was the largest-ever package of sanctions on North Korea approved by a council committee, diplomats said.

Friday’s move was part of a global crackdown on the smuggling of North Korean commodities in violation of UN sanctions resolutions, which were adopted in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

The sanctions were approved as the United States moves to open talks with North Korea on its nuclear drive, with a summit possibly between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un by the end of May.

Despite the diplomatic opening, the United States has made clear it will keep the pressure on Pyongyang to shift course by pressing on with sanctions.

Trump’s ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, on Friday welcomed the “historic” sanctions package”, calling it “a clear sign that the international community is united in our efforts to keep up maximum pressure on the North Korean regime”.

A total of 13 North Korean oil tankers and cargo vessels were banned from ports worldwide along with 12 other ships for helping Pyongyang smuggle banned commodities or supplying oil and fuel shipments, according to a UN document.

Two other North Korean vessels were hit with a global assets freeze, but are not banned from port entry.

Twenty-one shipping and trading firms were hit by an assets freeze.

Three of them are based in Hong Kong including Huaxin Shipping, which delivered shipments of North Korean coal to Vietnam in October.

Twelve North Korean firms were blacklisted for running ships involved in illegal transfers of oil and fuel, according to the document. Two other companies – Shanghai Dongfeng Shipping and Weihai World Shipping Freight, also based in China – were blacklisted for carrying North Korean coal on their vessels. The remaining firms are in based Singapore, Samoa, the Marshall Islands and Panama.

A businessman identified as Tsang Yung Yuan was hit by a global travel ban and assets freeze for organising illegal shipments of North Korean coal with a North Korean broker in Russia.

Last year, the Security Council adopted a series of resolutions to ban North Korean exports of commodities in a bid to cut off revenue to the nuclear-armed state’s military programmes.