Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Let's start with the international community's response to North Korea's latest provocation.
The UN Security Council is set to hammer out stronger sanctions on the regime for its recent
nuclear test.
A new resolution will be up for a vote in New York on Thursday morning, and if adopted,
Pyongyang will be facing much tighter inspections on its illicit activities.
Hwang Sung-hee has the details.
The 15-member UN Security Council will meet in New York on Thursday at 10 a.m. local time
to vote on whether to adopt a U.S.-drafted resolution against North Korea for its latest
nuclear test.
The draft resolution calls for stronger financial restrictions, tighter inspections of ships
and cargo, and closer monitoring of illicit activities by North Korean diplomats.
If adopted, the resolution would oblige the UN's 1-hundred-93 member states to block any
financial transactions or monetary transfers that could contribute to Pyongyang's nuclear
or ballistic missile programs.
Countries will be banned from providing public financial support for trade with the isolated
state if it could, in any way, support its nuclear ambitions.
The new resolution would make inspections of suspect land, sea or air cargo heading
to North Korea mandatory.
Until now, these have been done on a voluntary basis.
The Council will also blacklist two North Korean enterprises and three individuals working
for North Korean companies involved in the arms trade and Pyongyang's missile program,
which means they will be hit with asset freezes and travel bans.
UN Security Council diplomats say the resolution is intended to bring the sanctions against
North Korea more in line with the tough measures placed on Iran.
Similar measures were included in UN resolution 1929 the council's most recent sanctions resolution
against Tehran and diplomats say they were surprisingly effective in complicating Iran's
efforts to wiggle out of sanctions and raise funds for its nuclear program.
Hwang Sung-hee, Arirang News.