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Vote on Pyongyang resolution on Wednesday: UNSC

The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote on Wednesday morning to adopt a new sanctions resolution against North Korea, the USA mission said on Tuesday.

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North Korea started off the new year with what it claims was its first hydrogen bomb test on January 6 and followed up with the launch of a satellite on a rocket on February 7.

The council is due to vote on a US-drafted resolution, backed by China, that takes aim at North Korea’s banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs by cutting off sources of hard currency and access to material.

Testimonies by defectors from North Korea resulted from “plot-breeding organisations” in Japan, South Korea and the United States who were abducting and paying these defectors to fabricate reports about violations, Ri charged. The US circulated the draft resolution to the 15-nation council last week.

– Requires states to inspect all cargo to and from North Korea, in airports, seaports and free trade zones.

The U.S., its Western allies and Japan have pressed for new sanctions that go beyond the North’s nuclear and missile programs.

– Requires states to expel North Korean diplomats or any foreign national engaged in illicit activities for Pyongyang.

It also provides for a ban on exports of coal, iron and iron ore, gold, titanium and rare earth minerals from North Korea, and prohibits the supply of aviation fuel including rocket fuel to the reclusive country.

Any resolutions adopted against the DPRK “will be none of our business and we will never ever be bound by them”, he said.

Hwang said North Korea had staged massive cyber attacks against South Korea after conducting nuclear tests, instructing officials to detect such attacks at a right time and recover attacked networks successfully.

Items such as luxury watches, snowmobiles, recreational water vehicles and lead crystal have been added to a long list of luxury goods that North Korea is not allowed to import.

Both tests are banned under a series of United Nations resolutions that condemn North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs as a threat to world peace and security. It calls for a resumption of six-party talks leading to the goal of “the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner”.

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Banking restrictions would be tightened and governments would be required to ban flights of any plane suspected of carrying contraband destined for North Korea.

UN Security Council to Vote on New North Korea Sanctions