UN sanctions North Korea, blocks fuel, ships and workers

The United Nations Security Council placed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday that significantly choke off fuel supplies and order North Koreans working overseas to return home, in what may prove the last test of whether any amount of economic pressure can force the isolated country to reverse course on its nuclear weapons programme.

The sanctions, proposed by the United States and adopted by a vote of 15 to 0, were the third imposed this year, in an escalating effort to force the North into negotiations. China and Russia joined in the vote, in a striking display of unity, but only after the Trump administration agreed to soften a couple of the provisions.

Under the new sanctions, the amount of refined petroleum North Korea can import each year will be cut by 89 percent, exacerbating fuel shortages. Roughly 100,000 North Korean labourers who work in other countries, a critical source of hard currency, will be expelled within two years. Nations will be urged to inspect all North Korean shipping and halt ship-to-ship transfers of fuel, which the North has used to evade sanctions.

But the resolution does not permit countries to hail or board North Korean ships in international waters, which the Trump administration proposed in September. That would be the most draconian measure, because it would enable the United States Navy and its Pacific allies to create a cordon around the country, though Pentagon officials say it would risk setting off a firefight between North Korea and foreign navies.

The new sanctions are the toughest ever, but so were the last two rounds: In August, the Security Council blocked North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood, and in September, it blocked textile exports, curbed oil imports and called for inspections of ships that have visited the North’s ports.

Experts, and even the White House, agree that the United States is running out of sanctions options. The CIA assessment is that no amount of economic sanctions will force the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to give up his country’s nuclear programme.

“President Trump has used just about every lever you can use, short of starving the people of North Korea to death, to change their behaviour,” the White House homeland security adviser, Thomas P Bossert, said Tuesday. 

The vote came just four days after the United States charged that the North was responsible for the “Wannacry” cyberattack that crippled computers around the world in May, and nearly a month after the country launched a new intercontinental missile that appears capable of reaching any city in the US.

The United States, which has led the sanctions effort at the Security Council, drafted the latest round in consultation with other members, notably China, which historically has been reluctant to impose them for fear of destabilising North Korea, its neighbour.

There were some last-minute changes in the final version of the resolution, partly to satisfy Russian complaints. The changes included doubling the deadline for the return of North Korean workers to 24 months from 12 months.

Russia’s deputy ambassador, Vladimir Safronkov, who attended the Security Council vote, made a point of complaining about negotiations over the resolution, in which he said Russia had not been adequately consulted.

Still, Russia went along with the new measures — though American officials have charged that in recent months the Russians have secretly opened new links to the North, including internet connections that give the country an alternative to communicating primarily through China.

The unanimous decision was a diplomatic achievement for the Trump administration, only a day after most members of the United Nations General Assembly, brushing aside President Trump’s threats of retaliation, condemned the United States’ new recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

© 2017 The New York Times News Service