After U.S. Compromise, Security Council Strengthens North Korea Sanctions
By SOMINI SENGUPTASEPT. 11, 2017
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Security Council on Monday ratcheted up sanctions yet again against North Korea, but they fell significantly short of the far-reaching penalties that the Trump administration had demanded just days ago.
Moreover, it remained wholly unclear whether the additional penalties would persuade North Korea to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile tests — the latest just a week ago, when it detonated its sixth and most powerful nuclear device. North Korea claimed that detonation was from a hydrogen bomb.
The resolution asks countries around the world to inspect ships going in and out of North Korea’s ports (a provision put in place by the Security Council in 2009) but does not authorize the use of force for ships that do not comply, as the Trump administration had originally proposed. The resolution also requires those inspections to be done with the consent of the countries where the ships are registered, which opens the door to violations. Under the latest resolution, those ships could face penalties, but the original language proposed by the United States went much further, empowering countries to interdict ships suspected of carrying weapons material or fuel into North Korea and to use “all necessary measures” — diplomatic code for the deployment of military force — to enforce compliance.
Nor does the resolution impose a travel ban or asset freeze on the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, as the original American draft had set out. And the new measure adds a caveat to the original language that would have banned the import of North Korean laborers altogether, saying that countries should not provide work authorization papers unless necessary for humanitarian assistance or denuclearization. The weakened language was a nod to Russia, a big user of imported North Korean labor.
The new draft does ban textile exports out of North Korea, prohibits the sale of natural gas to North Korea and sets a cap on refined petroleum sales to two million barrels per year. That would shave off roughly 10 percent of what North Korea currently gets from China, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.
BY COLUM LYNCHSEPTEMBER 11, 2017
Trump Administration Pulls Back from Aggressive U.N. Resolution on North Korea
The Trump administration clawed back a plan to impose a total oil embargo and other harsh sanctions on North Korea in an effort to avoid a major diplomatic rift at the United Nations with China and Russia. But it succeeded in securing unanimous U.N. support for a resolution that aims to cut North Korean refined oil imports by nearly a third, and bars hundreds of millions of dollars in Pyongyang’s export of textiles.
Facing the prospect of a double veto, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, dropped a provision in a draft Security Council resolution that would have banned all North Korean oil imports and permitted American warships to use force to board vessels that have violated existing U.N. sanctions. The United States also scrapped a plan to impose an asset freeze on the North Korean leader and his government.
The move represents a sharp reversal from a push last week to squeeze North Korea’s economy in response to its Sept. 2 test of a powerful nuclear device that demonstrated Pyonyang’s rapidly improving capabilities. But it also set the stage for a potential agreement among the U.N. key powers on at least a more modest menu of sanctions.
The 15-nation Security Council voted unanimously to adopt the U.S.-drafted resolution.
The current resolution would place a 2 million barrel cap on the volume of refined oil petroleum products North Korea is permitted to import, and place a total ban on the import of natural gas liquids and the export of textiles. North Korea would be prevented from importing more crude oil over the next year than it did in the past year. The draft would limit North Korea’s ability to generate income by sending North Korean laborers abroad to work, with as much as a half billion dollars in proceeds flowing back into Pyongyang’s coffers each year.
Following the vote, Haley told the council that the oil cap would reduce North Korean oil imports by as much as thirty percent, and deprive the regime of some $800 million in revenues from textile experts. “This will cut deep,” Haley said, adding that the resolution would also ban joint ventures with North Korea. “In short, these are by far the strongest measures ever imposed on North Korea.”
国連安保理、北朝鮮制裁決議を採択 中ロ賛成、全会一致
ニューヨーク＝鵜飼啓2017年9月12日07時30分
NYTやFPによると決議をとおすために、かなりアメリカが譲歩して、これで、核開発や弾道ミサイル開発をやめるかどうは不明だ、と。
