The UN Security Council has unanimously approved the U.S.-drafted sanctions on North Korea.
What are the sanctions for?
The sanctions are in response to the North Korea’s two intercontinental ballistic missile tests recently, that appears to have the range to hit major US cities.
The sanctions prohibit North Korea from buying, selling or transferring coal, iron, iron ore, seafood, lead and lead ore to other countries.
They also attempt to restrict North Korean labour abroad.
It is said that if fully implemented, the sanctions would cut North Korea’s foreign earnings by $1 billion.
What is North Korea's response?
North Korea has firmly made it clear that new United Nations sanctions would not stop it from developing its nuclear arsenal.
It also rejected calls for negotiations and warned the US of retaliation.
North Korea also reiterated that unless the hostile policy and nuclear threat of the U.S. against it are fundamentally eliminated, it would not change its course on nuclear policy.
On the other hand, US has stated that it would consider talks only if Pyongyang halted its ballistic missile programme.
Pyongyang’s defiant statement also hit out at Beijing and Moscow, which have also acceded to the sanctions.
Are sanctions effective?
There are opinions that sanctions are a blunt instrument and can take a long time to have any effect because of ineffective implementation.
This is due to factors like North Korea exploits illicit supply networks, individual states don’t implement sanctions fully and private-sector firms can often undermine them.
Even earlier sanctions on North Korea have not fully materialised to choke off all economic activity of the present North Korean regime.
New sanctions are a necessary and potentially useful precondition but this is a kind of a security problem that requires more skilful diplomacy and alliance-building.
