U.N. issues new sanctions for N. Korea
follows North Korea’s first successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States on July 3 and July 27.
“All of this ICBM and nuclear irresponsibility has to stop,” Ms. Haley told reporters as she headed into the council to vote at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
Ms. Haley told the council that the vote showed Pyongyang that the world was united in seeking to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. But “we should not fool ourselves into thinking we have solved the problem,” Ms. Haley said. “Not even close. The North Korean threat has not left us.”
She said the United States had no plans to decrease its military exercises with South Korea, despite calls from China and Russia to do so, in exchange for gradual deescalation of its prohibited weapons activities.
Both Beijing and Moscow, in casting their votes for the new sanctions, said they appreciated statements by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week that the United States does not seek North Korea’s collapse, replacement of its government or “accelerated reunification” of the Korean peninsula, and has no intention of send troops there.
“Our hope is that the United States will translate these ‘four nos’ into a firm policy,” Liu Jieyi, China’s U.N. ambassador, told the council. In addition to reducing U.S. military exercises in the region, he repeated China’s objection to deployment of sophisticated U.S. anti-missile systems, known as THAAD, in South Korea. “THAAD will not bring a solution,” he said. “What it will do is to seriously undermine the strategic balance of the region.”
China also called for the resumption of talks between North Korea, regional powers and the United States. In his Tuesday statement, Mr. Tillerson said Washington was interested in a “productive dialogue,” but only on the basis of Pyongyang’s acceptance of nuclear disarmament.
“We don’t think having a dialogue where the North Koreans come to the table assuming they’re going to maintain their nuclear weaponsis productive,” he said.
President Donald Trump has expressed disappointment in the failure of China, which accounts for 90 percent of North Korea’s economic activity, to exert sufficient pressure on the rogue regime in Pyongyang. Passage of the new resolution follows nearly a month of U.S.-Chinese negotiations over the text, bolstered with administration warnings that it was preparing to lodge unrelated complaints against Beijing at the World Trade Organization.
The U.N. Security Council resolution adopted Saturday also condemns the missile launches “in the strongest terms” and reiterates previous calls for North Korea to suspend all ballistic missile launches and abandon its nuclear weapons and nuclear program “in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.”
The resolution bans North Korea from exporting coal, iron, lead and seafood products estimated to be worth over $1 billion. This represents one-third of last year’s exports.
It adds nine North Koreans, mainly officials or representatives of companies and banks, to the U.N. sanctions blacklist, banning their travel and freezing their assets. It also imposes an asset freeze on two companies and two banks.
The resolution asks the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea to ban the import of many more socalled dual-use items, which have commercial purposes but can also be used in conventional, biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
It also gives the committee a green light to designate specific vessels that are breaking sanctions from entering ports all over the world and to work with Interpol to enforce travel bans on North Koreans on the sanctions blacklist.
The resolution expresses regret at North Korea’s “massive diversion of its scarce resources toward its development of nuclear weapons and a number of expensive ballistic missile programs” — a point stressed by Ms. Haley. It notes U.N. findings that well over half the population lacks sufficient food and medical care, while a quarter suffers from chronic malnutrition.
Though the economic sanctions have teeth, Washington didn’t get everything it wanted.
In early July, Ms. Haley told the Security Council that if it was united, the international community could cut off major sources of hard currency to North Korea, restrict oil to its military and weapons programs, increase air and maritime restrictions and hold senior officials accountable.
Neither oil nor new air restrictions are included in the resolution.
Today, for the first time, Mr. Tillerson will be in the same room with his North Korean counterpart, and much of the world will be watching whether the two even acknowledge each other.
Joining them in Manila will be representatives of other countries with a stake in the regional confrontation, including China, Russia, South Korea and Japan. The occasion is the annual ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, which will be followed later this year by a meeting of the leaders of the organization’s nations. Mr. Trump has promised to attend that meeting.
Mr. Tillerson and North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, are this year’s most intriguing pairing, and their diplomatic choreography — whether they avoid each other or sit down together — could set the course for the Trump administration’s moves on its top foreign policy priority for the rest of the year.
State Department officials said the two were not expected to meet privately.