The U.N. Security Council's sanctions committee says the international community's financial and economic sanctions against North Korea failed to block the communist nation's dealing of nuclear materials and arms.

The committee said in its report that the international financial and trade sanctions imposed after the North's nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 have not halted the regime’s trading of banned nuclear materials and arms.

The report pointed out holes in the sanctions, citing that Pyongyang was exporting to China food items, which were then sold to Japan at higher prices.