The move of the UN is geared toward setting limits to North Korea’s coal exports to China, which is expected to lessen the external revenues of the DPRK.
The United Nations (UN) is drafting and making ready tighter sanctions on North Korea that would limit its coal exports to neighbor China, according to United States diplomats.
On Monday, US diplomats said that the move of the UN is in response to North Korea’s fifth and biggest nuclear test. The Security Council “condemns in the strongest terms” the nuclear test of North Korea last September 9.
The United States spearheaded the drafting of the resolution after negotiating with Beijing for three months. It should go to a Security Council vote on Wednesday, which the US diplomats are expecting he resolution to pass.
“This resolution would impose a hard, binding cap that will cut the DPRK’s (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) coal exports, which are its largest single source of external revenues, by more then 60 percent”, said a US official who is familiar with the text.
The sanctions aim to cut the coal earning of Pyongyang by $700 million or a dramatic 62 percent fall from 2015. It is planned to reduce North Korea’s financial capacity to fund its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The yet unnamed diplomat stressed that the tighter sanctions “would dramatically reduce the regime’s access to hard currency used for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs”.
The diplomat clarified that they do not claim that the resolution would cause the DPRK to leave its nuclear weapons program but would make it significantly more difficult for the country to do so.
The only ally of North Korea, China, is also among the few potential markets for the coal.
Just this 2016, NoKor has carried out more than 20 missile tests, one of which launched in August, landed in the Japanese-controlled waters.
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