The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution imposing harsher sanctions on North Korea.
North Korea conducted multiple ballistic missile tests this year, and in September, carried out its fifth and most powerful nuclear test. UNSC Resolution 2321 is a response to North Korea’s hostile and confrontational behavior.
Resolution 2321 should result in “unprecedented costs” for the North Korean regime, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power explained.
The U.N.’s new resolution enhances UNSC Resolution 2270 adopted in March following North Korea’s fourth nuclear test.
Resolution 2321 primarily targets North Korea’s mineral exports. A cap will be placed on how much coal North Korea can export each year, reducing the country’s coal export revenue by $700 million annually. The resolution will also put a new ban on additional metals, such as copper and zinc, cutting another $100 million. New sanctions should reduce North Korea’s $3 billion income by 25 percent.
North Korea is no longer allowed to export monuments, a business which nets the country tens of millions of dollars a year.
The resolution prohibits North Korean arms dealers from carrying diplomatic passports, bans the masking of North Korean ships with the flags of other countries and stops North Korea from importing illicit materials from other states.
Members of the international community may not export illicit materials to North Korea or hire laborers generating wages for the North Korean regime. The new resolution will blacklist foreign individuals contributing to the development of the North’s weapons programs.
The new resolution also demands that the oppressive North Korean regime respect human rights, those of its people, as well as those illegally detained or kidnapped.
The UNSC stressed that the new resolution is not designed to bring greater suffering upon the North Korean people; rather, it aims to bring about de-nuclearization in North Korea.
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