The United Nations has banned a massive sanctions resolution on North Korea and many of their exports, easily worth over $1 billion. President Donald Trump stated that it’s the largest economic sanctions package ever on North Korea.
United Nations Resolution is the single largest economic sanctions package ever on North Korea. Over one billion dollars in cost to N.K.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2017
As reported by Fox News:
The United Nations Security Council Saturday unanimously approved new sanctions against North Korea in the wake of the communist nation’s first successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.
The sanctions resolution bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood — resources that are worth over $1 billion to the regime of Kim Jong Un. North Korea exported an estimated $3 billion worth of goods last year.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley praised the new sanctions, telling council members after the vote that it is “the single largest economic package ever leveled against the North Korean regime.”
But she warned that it is not enough and “we should not fool ourselves into thinking we have solved the problem — not even close.”
“The threat of an outlaw nuclearized North Korean dictatorship remains … (and) is rapidly growing more dangerous,” Haley told council members after the vote.
Countries are also banned from giving any additional permits to North Korean laborers — another source of money for Pyongyang. And it prohibits all new joint ventures with North Korean companies and bans new foreign investment in existing ones.
The resolution was drafted by the U.S. and negotiated with North Korea’s neighbor and ally China. It is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs.
The Security Council has already imposed six rounds of sanctions that have failed to halt North Korea’s drive to improve its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons capabilities.
“All of this ICBM and nuclear irresponsibility has to stop,” Haley told reporters as she headed to the council to vote.
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.”
A Security Council diplomat told the Associated Press that coal has been North Korea’s largest export, earning $1.2 billion last year which was then restricted by the Security Council in November to a maximum $400 million. This year, Pyongyang was estimated to earn $251 million from iron and iron ore exports, $113 million from lead and lead ore exports, and $295 million from fish and seafood exports, the diplomat said.
