06 August, 2017
On Saturday, after months of provocation, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to impose strict sanctions on North Korea. This represents one-third of last year's exports.
In early July, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Security Council that if it was united, the worldwide community could cut off major sources of hard currency to North Korea, restrict oil to its military and weapons programs, increase air and maritime restrictions, and hold senior officials accountable.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley called the resolution "the single largest economic sanctions package ever leveled against the North Korean regime" and "the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation".
"And this time, the council has matched its words and actions", she said. It bans all exports of DPRK's coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. And it would prohibit all new joint ventures with North Korean companies, and ban new foreign investment in existing joint ventures.
The resolution condemns the launches "in the strongest terms" and reiterates previous calls for North Korea to suspend all ballistic missile launches and abandon its nuclear weapons and nuclear program "in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner".
This comes after Pyongyang's first successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the USA mainland. The second, experts said, showed the potential to reach the USA mainland.
Both China and Russian Federation voted in favor of the sanctions and the Los Angeles Times reported that on Saturday night the White House said in a statement that the president "appreciates" their cooperation and added that diplomatic avenues are still being pursued.
"To have China stand with us, along with Japan and (South Korea) and the rest of the worldwide community telling North Korea to do this, it's pretty impactful", Haley said. "Further action is required". But Liu also criticized the USA role on the Korean peninsula, saying the deployment of a US antimissile system, called THAAD, in South Korea, "will not bring a solution to the issue of [North Korea's] nuclear testing and missile launches".
On Saturday in New York, Russia's United Nations ambassador Vassily Nebenzia expressed concerns that the USA scaling up its THAAD anti-missile system and a recent 10-hour mission by aircraft carriers to the Korean Peninsula could pose further threats to regional security. Not only have there been loopholes in the past that traders and businesses have exploited, but implementation and enforcement of sanctions have been spotty. "This was a strong day in the UN, it was a strong day for the United States and it was a strong day for the worldwide community".
"It hasn't worked. So we're doing more of the same", he says. And the last thing they're going to yield on is their deterrence capability.
North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear arsenal, which it sees as a guarantee of its security.
The China-Russia initiative, which aims at tackling both the symptoms and the root causes of the problem and seeks a solution through an integrated approach, is realistic and feasible, he said, expressing the hope that the initiative would get the support of the relevant parties. Beijing views the USA missile shield as a threat to its own security.
The U.S. will continue to take "prudent defensive measures" to protect itself and its allies, she said. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha called it "a very, very good outcome".
The latest resolution is the eighth adopted by the Security Council since 2006 in response to North Korea's five nuclear tests and long-range missile launches.
