Two separate United Nations resolutions were also approved in 2006 and 2013 when the country tested a prohibited missile technology by launching long-range rockets.
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Regarded as being tougher than other recent sanctions on North Korea, the new measures doled out by the U.N. Security Council ban the country from exporting coal and other mineral resources – an industry that, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, serves as ” a key source of hard currency that accounts for almost half of the country’s total exports”. “Meanwhile, efforts shall be made to avoid impact on people’s well-being and humanitarian needs of North Korea, which are also an important part of the resolution”. 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.
Hong, however, stopped short of condemning North Korea for firing the projectiles.
The sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council late Wednesday were the toughest to date on North Korea which conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6 and a long-range rocket launch last month.
But Beijing “sees the mobilization of alliances, strong military alliances between the United States, South Korea and Japan and it sees that it can’t go on the way it has”, she added.
“All experts agree that these are the toughest, most detailed sanctions to date”.
Russian Federation echoed that view, with Ambassador Vitaly Churkin saying the resolution is created to “shut down as much as possible the financing” of North Korea’s weapons program to push Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.
South Korea’s National Assembly on Wednesday passed a North Korean human rights bill that was stuck in parliament for more than a decade, which is meant to enhance and protect the basic rights of North Koreans from Pyongyang’s rogue regime. But citizens in its capital, Pyongyang, interviewed by The Associated Press said Thursday they believe their country can fight off any sanctions. It will become law after it is signed by President Park Geun-hye.
On Wednesday, North Korea denounced the bill on its external propaganda website Uriminzokkiri as an “unjust law” that demonstrates the South’s goal for “anti-national unification” by fabricating records about North Korea’s human rights record.
The objects traveled off the peninsula’s east coast and the South Korean military is analyzing the situation, an official from the South Korean Defense Ministry said.
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It is required to transfer that information to the justice ministry, a step parliamentary officials say would provide legal grounds to punish rights violators in North Korea when the two Koreas eventually reunify.
