The U.N. Security Council unanimously passed the sanctions resolution, significantly tightening the screws on the North, which sparked global outrage with its fourth nuclear test on January 6 and its rocket launch on February 7 in violation of U.N. bans. He urged a resumption of dialogue to restart stalled six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear program through diplomatic negotiations.
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“This resolution, co-sponsored by Canada, sends an unequivocal message that the worldwide community is resolved to halt North Korea’s reckless and illegitimate pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities”, said Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion in a press release Wednesday.
In response to the nuclear tests conducted in 2009 and 2013, the council adopted another three resolutions to strengthen various sanctions on Pyongyang, which include an arms embargo, an embargo related to nuclear ballistic missile, and a ban on the export of luxury goods. A ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity under department guidelines, said the projectiles were launched from the area around Wonsan on North Korea’s east coast.
The North’s launches also come shortly after Seoul approved its first legislation created to improve human rights in North Korea.
Their firing doesn’t actually contravene the new sanctions. DPRK are the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
TASS reported that the revision requested by Russia called for easing the clause on banning aviation fuel exports to allow for North Korean commercial airliners refueling at Russian airports to receive jet fuel so that they can return to Pyongyang.
China fears too much pressure could trigger the collapse of the pariah regime, creating chaos on its border.
While adopting the measures, United Nations ambassadors from the US and Japan stressed the importance of carrying out what is regarded as the toughest nonmilitary sanctions package ever from the UN.
According to Chinese Customs data, imports from North Korea totalled $2.56 billion previous year, including $1.05 billion worth of coal and another $73 million of iron.
The commission, which was also sanctioned, is North Korea’s highest branch of government and the country’s supreme policymaking organization.
North Korea’s envoy retorted that the nuclear programme was “not directed to harm the fellow countryman but to protect peace on the Korean Peninsula and security in the region from the United States vicious nuclear war scenario”.
China also recognized the significance of the new resolution, saying the new United Nations sanctions would make North Korea pay the “necessary price” for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch.
The expanded sanctions, if adopted, would require inspections of all cargo going to and from North Korea and blacklisting North Koreans active in Syria, Iran and Vietnam.
Initially there were 17 individuals on the list, but diplomats said Russian Federation insisted on dropping Jang Song Chol, the Russian Federation representative of the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation.
The sanctions’ economic implications will be serious, but that does not necessarily mean that those implications “will translate into new decisions on the nuclear program, the missile program, or other regional activities”, Nephew said. All shipments into and out of the country can now also be inspected. But enforcement was weak, and the sanctions contained enough loopholes that Pyongyang was able to repeatedly defy them.
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South Korean experts were trying to identify exactly what had been fired.
