Latest U.N. Sanctions and North Korea’s Response

Just three days after the U.N. Security Council passed a new resolution against North Korea, North Korea fired a second ballistic missile over Japan.

The newest sanctions, which passed unanimously in the council on September 11^th, bans all North Korean textile exports, sets a cap on oil imports, attempts to suppress smuggling efforts by asking countries to check ships that come from North Korea’s ports, and prohibits nations from authorizing new work permits to North Korean citizens around the world.

This is the second resolution to be passed by the U.N. to sanction North Korea after its latest nuclear test on September 3^rd.

The last resolution, passed in August, called for a total ban on North Korea exporting its coal, iron and iron ore, and seafood. These sanctions were passed in an attempt to condemn North Korea’s missile test violations and demand North Korea give up its prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

While these are now supposed to be the harshest sanctions put on North Korea, they are watered down compared to the sanctions originally sought by the U.S. The U.S. wanted a complete ban on oil imports into North Korea and to impose a travel ban and asset freeze on Kim Jong-un, the Worker’s Party and the government of North Korea.

Russia and China were both against these demands claiming it might destabilize Pyongyang and cause millions of refugees to cross North Korea’s border with China.

After the U.N. passed these sanctions, a North Korean propaganda outlet known as the “Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee” threatened to use nuclear weapons to hit both Japan and the U.S. in response to the new sanctions. North Korea’s UN ambassador also said that North Korea will make the U.S. suffer the greatest pain it has ever experienced.

On Thursday, North Korea launched another missile, believed to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), and it went farther and higher than the previous missile launch on August 29^th. The missile traveled 3,700 km, over Japan and then into the Pacific Ocean. This latest missile proves that North Korea would have the ability to make good on a its threat to hit the U.S. territory of Guam, which is only 3,400 km away from North Korea.

After this missile launch, there is a dispute about who should take responsibility for responding to North Korea. The Trump Administration has stated it believes that China and Russia, as their biggest allies and trading partners, are responsible for ensuring North Korea end its provocations. The goal would be to have China, as North Korea’s largest supplier, use oil as leverage to stop North Korea from continuing its nuclear weapons program. China has said the U.S. and South Korea are the focal point of the conflict.

Since it has only been a few days since the U.N. resolution was passed, the sanctions haven’t been effective yet, but when they are implemented completely, are expected to cost North Korea millions of dollars.

Textiles makes up over a quarter of North Korea’s exports and with this full ban on textiles, may cost over $700 million in sales. The ban on providing work permits to North Koreans and with more than 90,000 North Korean workers employed abroad could cost the regime another half billion dollars a year .

The resolution would also reduce oil imports to North Korea by 30 percent, and there is disagreement on how much impact this reduction will have. There is a possibility that with the reduction in oil, North Korea will only cut non-military oil use to not affect the nuclear program. Without accurate figures about North Korea and its oil usage, it is hard to determine how much of an impact the oil cuts will have.