The U.N. Security Council on Thursday approved a new regimen of sanctions against North Korea for conducting an underground nuclear test last month, imposing penalties on North Korean banking, travel and trade in a unanimous vote that reflected the country's increased international isolation.
The resolution, which was drafted by the United States and China, was passed 15-0 in a speedy vote hours after North Korea threatened for the first time to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States and South Korea.
“The strength, breadth and severity of these sanctions will raise the cost to North Korea of its illicit nuclear program,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, told reporters after the vote.
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Chinese ambassador Li Baodong, whose support for the new sanctions angered North Korea, said the resolution was aimed at the long-term goal of denuclearising the Korean peninsula.