UNITED NATIONS/ SEOUL, Dec 22( Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council unanimously enforced new sanctions on North Korea on Friday for its Nov. 29 intercontinental ballistic missile test, seeking to limit its access to refined petroleum products and crude oil and its earnings from employees abroad.
A Security Council solving adopted 15 -0 seeks to ban nearly 90 percentage of refined petroleum product exportations to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and, in a last-minute change, demands the repatriation of North Koreans running abroad within 24 months, instead of 12 months as first proposed.
The U.S.-drafted resolution also caps crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4 million barrels a year and commits the Council to further reductions if Pyongyang were to conduct another nuclear test or launching another ICBM.
North Korea on Nov. 29 said it successfully tested a new ICBM in a “breakthrough” that puts the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons whose warheads could withstand re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere.
Tensions have been rising over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, which it pursues in defiance of years of U.N. Security Council resolves, with bellicose rhetoric coming from both Pyongyang and the White House.
In November, North Korea demanded a halting to what it called “brutal sanctions, ” saying a previous round imposed after its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3 constituted genocide.
U.S. diplomats have made clear they are seeking a diplomatic solution but proposed the new, tougher sanctions resolution to ratchet up pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“It sends the unambiguous message to Pyongyang that farther defiance will invite further punishments and isolation, ” Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said after the vote.
The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the vote.
Wu Haitao, China’s deputy U.N. diplomat, said tensions on the Korean peninsula risk “spiraling out of control” and he recurred Beijing’s call for talks.
“Only by satisfying each other halfway and through dialog and consultations can a peaceful solution be found, ” he said.
North Korea regularly threatens to destroy South Korea, the United States and Japan, and says its weapons programs are necessary to counter U.S. aggressivenes. The United States stations 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the 1950 -5 3 Korean War.
On Friday, a spokesperson for North Korea’s foreign ministry called U.S. President Donald Trump’s recently released national security strategy the latest American policy seeking to “stifle our country and turn the entire Korean peninsula” into an outpost of American hegemony.
He said Trump was seeking “total subordination of the whole world.”
INCREASING PRESSURE
Speaking before the Security Council election, analysts said the new sanctions could have a major effect on the North’s economy.
“If they were enforced, the cap on petroleum “wouldve been” devastating for North Korea’s haulage industry, for North Koreans who use generators at home or for productive activities, and for( state-owned enterprises) that do the same, ” said Peter Ward, a columnist for NK News, a website that tracks North Korea.
The forced repatriation of foreign workers would also cut off vital sources of foreign currency and investment not only for the government but also for North Korea’s emerging market economy, he said.
China, which renders most of North Korea’s oil, has backed successive rounds of U.N. sanctions but had resisted past U.S. calls to cut off supplies to its neighbor.
The move to curb Chinese fuel exportations to North Korea may have restriction impact after China National Petroleum Corp suspended diesel and gasoline marketings to its northern neighbor in June over concerns it would not get paid.
Business has slowed steadily since then, with zero shipments of diesel, gasoline and other fuel from China in October. November data is likely to be released on Monday.
Russia softly boosted economic support for North Korea earlier this year, and last week Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said Moscow was not ready to sign up to sanctions that would strangle the country economically.
In a bid to further choke North Korea’s external sources of funding, the resolution also seeks to ban North Korean exports of food products, machinery, electrical equipment, globe and stone, including magnesite and magnesia, wood and vessels.
It also bans exportations to North Korea of industrial equipment, machinery, transportation vehicles, and industrial metals as well as subjecting 15 North Koreans and the Ministry of the People’s Armed Force to a global asset freeze and travel ban.
It also seeks to allow countries to confiscate, inspect and freeze any boat in their ports or territorial waters that they believe was carrying banned shipment or to participate in proscribed activities.
Even if the proposed sanctions have an economic consequence, it is not clear whether that would push Pyongyang to negotiate or stop its weapons developing, said Kim Sung-han, a former South Korean vice foreign minister.
“We have had numerous – sometimes so-called toughest – sanctions against North Korea over the past 25 years, ” he said. “Almost none have worked effectively to halt the regime’s military and nuclear ambitions.”
Read more: www.huffingtonpost.com
