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8042nd Security Council Meeting: DPRK
The Security Council, acting unanimously this evening, decided to impose a raft of new sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — including a ban on the sale of natural gas liquids to the North-East Asian nation, and on its textile exports — while also prohibiting Member States from providing work authorizations to its nationals.
By the terms of resolution 2375 (2017), the Council condemned in the strongest terms Pyongyang’s nuclear test of 2 September, saying that action stood “in flagrant disregard” of its resolutions, and reaffirmed that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea must immediately suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.
Among the new sanctions imposed today was a ban on the supply, sale or transfer of all condensates and natural gas liquids to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as well as a ban on its exports of textiles such as fabrics and apparel products.
The Council further decided that all Member States would prohibit the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of all refined petroleum products beyond 500,000 barrels during an initial period of three months — beginning on 1 October 2017 and ending on 31 December 2017 — and exceeding 2 million barrels per year during a period of 12 months beginning on 1 January 2018 and annually thereafter.
In addition, Member States would not supply, sell or transfer crude oil to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in excess of the amount supplied, sold or transferred by that State in the 12-month period prior to the adoption of today’s resolution.
In addition, the Council decided to extend a number of existing sanctions, including the freezing of one additional individual’s assets, and both a travel ban and assets freeze to be imposed on three additional entities, both annexed to the text.
Expressing concern that nationals of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea frequently worked in other States for the purpose of generating foreign export earnings used to support Pyongyang’s prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, the Council also decided to prohibit Member States from providing authorizations for that country’s nationals to work in their jurisdictions unless specifically determined by the Committee established pursuant to Council resolution 1718 (2006).
The Council further called for the resumption of the Six-Party Talks — multilateral negotiations involving China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation and the United States — expressing its commitment to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
Following the text’s adoption, Council members emphasized that its “robust” measures were commensurate with the serious and escalating nature of the threats posed by Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.
The representative of the United States, a co-sponsor of the resolution, said it built upon what were already the deepest-cutting sanctions ever levelled against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Recalling Pyongyang’s claims that it had tested a hydrogen bomb on 3 September, she warned: “We will act to stop it ourselves” if the regime did not end such activities. Half measures had failed, she said, adding that the Council had acted in a different way today by attempting to take the future of Pyongyang’s missile programme “out of the hands of its outlaw regime”.
Japan’s representative said today’s resolution would strengthen the sanctions imposed on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to an unprecedented level, with the ban on textile exports expected to reduce its revenues by $800 million and oil imports to be cut by approximately 30 per cent. Indeed, the text was “an urgent call for the regime to change its behaviour”, he said, emphasizing that the Council would not back off in the face of Pyongyang’s persistent provocations.
Several speakers highlighted the resolution’s support for a peaceful, negotiated diplomatic solution, noting that it left significant room for dialogue. In that regard, Senegal’s representative joined other speakers in urging the parties to return to the negotiating table, pointing out that the resolution contained critical provisions that could pave the way for a political settlement.
Echoing calls for a peaceful resolution, China’s representative cited the joint China-Russian Federation initiative announced on 4 July, saying it was as realistic as it was feasible. He expressed hope that the United States would not seek to change the Pyongyang regime, collapse it, pursue an accelerated reunification of the Korean Peninsula, or dispatch military forces north of the thirty-eighth parallel.
The Russian Federation’s representative said his country did not accept Pyongyang’s claim to nuclear-weapon status. However, the rejection by the resolution’s sponsors of the Secretary-General’s good offices, and their reluctance to reaffirm the “four nos” — concerning regime change, regime collapse, accelerated reunification and military deployment north of the thirty-eighth parallel — raised serious questions that remained unanswered. It would be a “big mistake” to underestimate the joint initiative of the Russian Federation and China, he said, insisting that it be taken into consideration.
The Republic of Korea’s representative said the swift and unanimous adoption of today’s resolution reflected both a sense of urgency as well as the gravity of the situation on the Korean Peninsula. The sanctions would substantially reduce the oil supply to the Democratic people’s Republic of Korea, which would also lose two of its largest sources of income — textile exports and overseas labourers. Emphasizing the importance of international unity on the matter, he said the goal was not to “bring [the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to its knees, but to achieve a peaceful solution” to the nuclear issue.
Also speaking were representatives of France, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Uruguay, Italy, Sweden, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Bolivia and Ethiopia.
The meeting began at 6:08 p.m. and ended at 7:20 p.m.
