The UN Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday for its recent intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test, seeking to limit its access to refined petroleum products and crude oil and its earnings from workers abroad.
The UN resolution seeks to ban nearly 90% of refined petroleum exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and, in a last-minute change, demands the repatriation of North Koreans working abroad within 24 months, instead of 12 months as first proposed.
The U.S.-drafted resolution also caps crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4 million barrels a year and commits the Council to further reductions if it were to conduct another nuclear test or launch another ICBM.
North Korea on November 29 said it successfully tested a new ICBM that put the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons.
“It sends the unambiguous message to Pyongyang that further defiance will invite further punishments and isolation,” Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said after the 15-0 vote.
The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
South Korea welcomed the sanctions and called on North Korea to “immediately cease reckless provocations, and take the path of dialogue for denuclearisation".
