The UN Security Council has unanimously passed a US-drafted resolution that imposes strongest sanctions ever on North Korea, with measures targeting its last remaining major exports and reducing about 30 percent of oil provided to it.
"Today, we are saying the world will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea. And today, the Security Council is saying that if the North Korean regime does not halt its nuclear program, we will act to stop it ourselves," the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said as the 15-membered UN body passed the resolution 2375 on North Korea.
"We are done trying to prod the regime to do the right thing. We are now acting to stop it from having the ability to continue doing the wrong thing," she said.
Haley said the international community is doing that by hitting North Korea's ability to fuel and fund its weapons program.
Noting that oil is the lifeblood of North Korea's effort to build and deliver a nuclear weapon, Haley said the resolution reduces almost 30 per cent of oil provided to North Korea by cutting off over 55 per cent of its gas, diesel, and heavy fuel oil.
"Further, today's resolution completely bans natural gas and other oil byproducts that could be used as substitutes for the reduced petroleum. This will cut deep," she said.
Haley said these are by far the strongest measures ever imposed on North Korea.
"They give us a much better chance to halt the regime's ability to fuel and finance its nuclear and missile programs. But we all know these steps only work if all nations implement them completely and aggressively," she said.
When these new stronger sanctions are added to those passed last month, over 90 percent of North Korea's publicly reported exports are now fully banned.
Moreover, this resolution also puts an end to the regime making money from the 93,000 North Korean citizens it sends overseas to work and heavily taxes, she noted.
This ban will eventually starve the regime of an additional $500 million or more in annual revenues, she added.
Beyond the $1.3 billion in annual revenues we will cut from North Korea, new maritime authorities will help us stop them from obtaining funds by smuggling coal and other prohibited materials around the world by ship, the top American diplomat said.
The resolution bans all North Korean textile exports.
Textile exports - North Korea's largest economic sector that the Security Council had not previously restricted - earned North Korea an average of $760 million in the past three years.
The resolution requires the end of all joint ventures with North Korea.
This will not only starve the regime of any revenues generated through such arrangements, it will now stop all future foreign investments and technology transfers to help North Korea's nascent and weak commercial industries, a US fact sheet said.