USA to present UN North Korea draft resolution

The United States on Thursday proposed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution that would dramatically tighten sanctions on North Korea following Pyongyang’s recent nuclear test and missile launch. Previously states were only required to do this if they had reasonable grounds to believe there was illicit cargo. When China, the source for most of its supply of aviation fuel, temporarily cut off the flow in 2013 in response to a nuclear weapons test, a dramatic decline in North Korean air force training followed. The council is expected to vote on the draft over the weekend.

Investigations by the panel showed that Pyongyang has been successful at sanctions-busting, but the experts also faulted United Nations member-states, particularly in Africa, for failing to fully implement the measures. He played down the influence Beijing has over North Korea, saying that ultimately, “the DPRK will go in the direction it has set for itself”.

The U.S. official said one of five annexes to the resolution lists 31 ships owned by North Korean shipping firm Ocean Maritime Management Company Limited, which will be blacklisted.

“It’s not easy, but it certainly is an indication that the United States and China, when our interests are aligned, can co-operate quite effectively to advance the interests of citizens in both our countries”, he said.

Despite what appears to the global community as a series of North Korean provocations, China always tries to protect Pyongyang, which is six weeks it took for Washington and Beijing to develop a text.

Chinese authorities are urging caution regarding efforts to impose new sanctions against North Korea, warning that the move should not affect people’s livelihoods in the country.

Resolutions 1718, 1874, 2087 and 2094 ban North Korea from any activity linked to nuclear technologies and also developing ballistic missiles.

Deputy Defence Secretary Robert Work said the tests, conducted at least 15 times since January 2011, send a message to strategic competitors such as Russia, China and North Korea that Washington has an effective nuclear arsenal.

A USA official familiar with the negotiations said that the draft North Korea resolution has unprecedented new provisions, created to close gaps on the United Nations sanctions already in place and to make many provisions mandatory where they were not before, reports CBS News’ Pamela Falk, from the United Nations.

There would also be an unprecedented ban on any item that could directly contribute to the military capability of North Korea, such as trucks that could be modified.

The draft resolution targets impoverished North Korea’s heavy reliance on mineral exports by banning the sale or transfer of North Korean coal, iron and iron ore if profits are deemed to be spent on its nuclear or missile programs.

“China has to think about what will happen to the North Korean economy, whether there will be other problems”, said Jin.

Jeong Joon-Hee, a spokesman for Seoul’s unification ministry, said the measures included in the draft would significantly hurt the North’s foreign currency income because it is estimated that minerals account for almost 40% of the country’s exports. “They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state”, it added.

But although China was fed up with Kim’s aggressive and unpredictable behavior, it refused to enshrine those trade limits in the sanctions because energy supplies are tied to the well-being of civilians in North Korea and China – especially important during the harsh winter, he said.