UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – In response to North Korea’s third nuclear test, the U.N. Security Council is set to tighten financial restrictions on North Korea and crack down on Pyongyang’s attempts to ship and receive banned cargo in violation of existing sanctions.
The measures are included in a draft sanctions resolution which the United States delivered to the council on Tuesday. The nine-page text was the product of three weeks of negotiations between the United States and China in response to North Korean’s third nuclear test on Feb. 12.
The 15-nation council plans to put it to a vote today at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, council president for March, said yesterday.
The resolution, which council diplomats say is intended to bring the North Korea sanctions regime more in line with tough U.N. measures in place against Iran, would have the council “expressing the gravest concern at the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).”
But the success of the new measures, council diplomats say, will depend to a large extent on the willingness of North Korea’s ally China to enforce them.
Council diplomats say the U.N. sanctions regime against Iran over its nuclear program, which Western powers and their allies say is intended for making weapons but Tehran says is peaceful, has been more effective than the restrictions on Pyongyang. That, they say, is why they used the Iran measures as a model.
The U.S.-drafted North Korea resolution, if adopted, would impose an obligation on the United Nations’ 193 member states to block any financial services or monetary transfers that “could contribute to the DPRK’s nuclear or ballistic missile programs.”
It specifically mentions “bulk cash” transfers, which council diplomats say is one of Pyongyang’s preferred methods of moving cash – often in briefcases carried by its diplomats.
The resolution would also impose a binding obligation on countries to “not provide public financial support for trade with the DPRK” if it could in any way support North Korea’s nuclear or missile work.
