North Korea rejects UN sanctions, briefs envoys in Pyongyang

While the North exported around $1 billion worth of coal last year, the amount will be limited to a maximum $400 million a year under the new sanctions. It is essential that China earnestly follows this requirement, given that nearly all North Korean coal exports go there. Beijing, no matter how annoyed by its neighbor, consistently maintains the view that talks and trade are the solution to the North Korean conundrum. It prohibits the sale of bronze monumental statues, which North Korea sells primarily to authoritarian rulers in Africa and the Middle East, earning tens of millions of dollars.

Vice Foreign Minister Han Song Ryol called a gathering of foreign diplomats in the capital Friday to lay out his country’s opposition to the sanctions, which have the support of China, North Korea’s primary trading partner. This explains why the press conference by Office for Government Policy Coordination chief Lee Suk-joon to announce the sanctions on December 2 was met with questions over whether Seoul’s designation of the entire Pyongyang regime as a “criminal group” meant it was ruling out all future dialogue.

Seven people, including officials from North Korea’s ruling party, and 16 companies – North Korea’s national carrier Air Koryo among them – were blacklisted by Washington, Reuters reported, citing a statement from the US Treasury.

But the measures were largely symbolic, analysts said, and are unlikely to convince North Korea that the costs of pursuing nuclear weapons outweigh the benefits.

Also included, however, are officials of the General Association of Korean Residents, a pro-Pyongyang organization in Japan. Also under the new set of sanctions, foreign vessels that have docked in North Korea will not be able to dock in the South for a year, doubling the length of the entry ban from the previous announcement.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said the government had made a decision to tighten sanctions due to North Korea’s repeated nuclear tests and abduction of foreign nationals. North Korea actually exports a lot of its statues – it’s obviously very well known for producing statues of the Kim family. We are being promised these new sanctions will cut the flow of hard currency into Kim’s coffers by $700 million. This provision especially targets Chinese companies who assist Pyongyang with banking.

“What the Obama administration has been doing isn’t working, and our enemies are getting stronger and more belligerent, and with the growing unrest in South Korea, the Korean peninsula is all the more perilous”, Cruz said.

The resolution points out that the measures are not meant to produce negative humanitarian consequences in the DPRK, nor affect normal economic and trade activity, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a daily press briefing. They will be subject to financial sanctions.

He also raised the unresolved issue of North Korea’s abductions of Japanese nationals as one of the threats presented by the country.

What do you think of this latest round of sanctions?

We will have to put up with North Korea’s de facto nuclear status for some time.