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UNSC Unanimously Adopts New Sanctions on N. Korea

News2017-12-23
UNSC Unanimously Adopts New Sanctions on N. Korea

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a new sanctions resolution on North Korea on Friday that further restricts oil imports to the country.

This marks the tenth UN sanctions resolution on North Korea since 2006, following the regime’s first nuclear test.

Friday’s Resolution 2397 calls for drastic cuts to the country’s oil supply and the repatriation of North Korean laborers working abroad.

The 15-member council imposed an annual cap of two million barrels of refined petroleum exports to the North in September; the new resolution calls for a further reduction to 500-thousand barrels.

The resolution also indicates oil restrictions will be tightened if North Korea detonates another nuclear weapon or test fires a ballistic missile.

The resolution requires UN member states to repatriate North Korean workers within 24 months. The previous resolution had banned newly hiring North Koreans or extending the contract of existing workers. 

The North is believed to have dispatched between 50 and 100-thousand workers to some 40 countries including China and Russia. 

The latest resolution also calls for impounding vessels suspected of carrying banned goods to and from the North. It also bans imports of North Korean food, agricultural products, minerals, machinery and electronic equipment, while exports to the North of transportation vehicles, industrial equipment, steel and metals are banned.

The resolution also blacklists 16 more North Korean individuals. Fourteen are heads of North Korean banks overseas while two others are senior ruling Workers' Party officials credited for developing missiles. 

The North’s Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces is also named on the blacklist, although North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his younger sister Kim Yo-jong are not.

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