UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U. N. Security Council scheduled a vote Friday on proposed new sanctions against North Korea, including sharply lower limits on…
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U. N. Security Council scheduled a vote Friday on proposed new sanctions against North Korea, including sharply lower limits on its refined oil imports, the return home of all North Koreans working overseas within 12 months, and a crackdown on the country’s shipping.
The measures in the draft resolution circulated to all 15 members of the Security Council on Thursday aren’t the toughest-ever measures sought by the Trump administration. Those would ban all oil imports and freeze international assets of the government and its leader, Kim Jong Un.
But the draft resolution would cap crude oil imports at 4 million barrels a year. And it would cap imports of refined oil products, including diesel and kerosene at 500,000 barrels a year — a nearly 90 percent ban of these products which are key to North Korea’s economy, and a reduction from the 2 million barrels a year the council authorized in September.
The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, would ban the export of food products, machinery, electrical equipment, earth and stones, wood and vessels from North Korea. And it would also ban all countries from exporting industrial equipment, machinery, transportation vehicles and industrial metals to the country.
The proposed sanctions are the Security Council’s response to North Korea’s test on Nov. 29 of its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile yet, which the government said is capable of hitting anywhere on the U. S. mainland. It was North Korea’s 20th launch of a ballistic missile this year and added to fears that the North will soon have a nuclear arsenal that can viably target the U. S. mainland.
The United States drafted the resolution and reportedly negotiated it with China before circulating the final text to the rest of the council.
The last sanctions resolution was adopted Sept.
