Will added United Nations sanctions cool North Korea’s nuclear ambitions?

According to the resolution, total exports of coal from the DPRK to all Member States should not exceed $400 million or 7.5 million metric tonnes annually, whichever is lower, beginning January 1, 2017.

North Korea now generates more than $1 billion a year in revenue from coal exports, making coal its single biggest source of income, according to diplomats and data from Global Trade Atlas.

On Sept. 9, the DPRK conducted a nuclear warhead explosion test.

“No resolution in NY will likely, tomorrow, persuade Pyongyang to cease its relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons”, she said.

Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho said that sanction were created to “change the course of DPRK policy” and hopefully bring North Korea toward global dialogue and back to the negotiation table.

The US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, said that the move made by the UN is “the strongest sanctions regime the Security Council has imposed on any country in more than a generation”.

The new measures are the product of USA lobbying of China over the issue, including a veiled threat that the United States would take unilateral action against Chinese companies doing illegal business with the North.

He added that during the time of the worst flood in decades, North Korea went ahead with the “nuclear test this September in the hardest hit region”.

“In March, this council passed what were then the toughest sanctions to date on the DPRK”.

The resolution prohibited Pyongyang from using real property that the country owns or leases in other United Nations member states for any goal other than diplomatic or consular activities.

“Have the sanctions that the Security Council has imposed caused the DPRK to abandon its nuclear program?” said a US official familiar with the resolution, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and speaking on the condition of anonymity to comment on the confidential negotiations.

The latest sanctions, which are the sixth round since 2006, ban the sale of copper, nickel, silver and zinc by North Korea and further restricts its export of coal and iron by specifying that those sales can serve exclusively “livelihood purposes” of North Korean people.

Experts said a key test will be whether Beijing steps up efforts to enforce the new limits, which target the North’s hard-currency revenues by placing a cap on coal exports.

The resolution’s most significant provision is a binding cap that would cut coal exports by about 60 per cent. China, with its large appetite for commodities, cited the exception to increase imports of coal from its neighbor since the spring.

Chinese coal imports from the North have surged in recent months, raising concerns that the deals are generating revenue for Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs. The bank had also been listed as an entity “involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities” in UN Security Council Resolution 1747. Pyongyang is famous for building huge, socialist-style statues which it exports mainly to African countries.

How will the new United Nations sanctions on the DPRK’s oil impact the country?

And even though some Chinese steelmakers in northern China value North Korea’s high-grade coal, the new curbs would have relatively little impact on China’s industrial output, said Deng Shun, a coal market analyst with Success Futures, a trading company in Guangzhou.