US Ambassador Nikki Haley said the tough new measures were a message to Pyongyang that "the world will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea," but she also held out the prospect of a peaceful resolution to the crisis. "We are not looking for war. The North Korean regime has not yet passed the point of no-return," Haley told the council, adding: "If North Korea continues its dangerous path, we will continue with further pressure. The choice is theirs."
During tough negotiations, the United States dropped initial demands for a full oil embargo and a freeze on the foreign assets of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. The resolution instead bans trade in textiles, cuts off natural gas shipments to North Korea, places a ceiling on deliveries of refined oil products and caps crude oil shipments at current levels.
It bars countries from issuing new work permits to North Korean laborers sent abroad - there are some 93,000, providing Kim's regime with a source of revenue to develop its missile and nuclear programs, according to a US official familiar with the negotiations. Under the measure, countries are authorized to inspect ships suspected of carrying banned North Korean cargo but must first seek the consent of the flag-state.
Joint ventures will be banned and the names of senior North Korean official and three entities were added to a UN sanctions blacklist that provides for an assets freeze and a global travel ban. It was the eighth series of sanctions imposed on North Korea since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006. Seoul welcomed the resolution, calling it a "grave warning that (North Korea's) continued provocations will only intensify its diplomatic isolation and economic pressure."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017