UN Security Council to vote on new North Korea sanctions Tuesday

While North Korea is believed to have abducted nationals from across the world, The New Yorker notes that “Japanese nationals were especially sought after, because their identities could be used to create fake passports”. In general, all North Korean financial institutions would be barred from opening new offices or branches overseas.

Kim also insisted that the North’s latest nuclear test was only aimed at defending the isolated state against a USA threat, while North Korean leader Kim Jong-un intends to continue testing long-range rockets until the global community is convinced of their peaceful objective. “There has, in the wake of the most recent provocations by the North, been an agreement to begin consultations with South Korea about the potential efficacy of such a deployment”. The financial corporations of other nations would similarly be prevented from expanding within North Korea.

The resolution also bans imports to North Korea of aviation and rocket fuel, as well as exports of commodities such as coal, iron, gold, titanium and rare earth minerals.

“The government did not say we are exaggerating the amount, but they said it has not been objectively proven”, said Jeong Gi-seob, chairman of the Corporate Association of Kaesong Industrial Complex, according to VOA.

The United States, France and Britain had pushed for quick adoption of the draft text, but Russian Federation said it needed time to analyse its content.

After almost two months of bilateral negotiations that at one point involved U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, China agreed to support the unusually tough measures meant to persuade North Korea to abandon its atomic weapons program.

In a televised speech to mark the anniversary of a key date in Korea’s struggle against Japanese colonial rule, Park said failure to respond to the North’s “reckless provocations” would only result in further nuclear tests.

Choi Gyeong-su, head of the North Korea Resources Institute in Seoul, commented: “You can’t determine which part of the mineral trade is related to people’s livelihoods or not”.

General Curtis Scaparrotti, head of U.S. forces in South Korea, spelled out the implications of such a war.

Qiao said North Korea is making China “uncomfortable”, adding that while Pyongyang is free to choose its own political system, China “absolutely will not tolerate this attitude of North Korea”. Now as part of its “pivot to Asia” and military build-up against China, the USA is deliberately exacerbating a risky flashpoint that could trigger a devastating conflict that would engulf the entire region.