The UN has unanimously adopted its strongest sanctions yet on North Korea, aimed at depriving Pyongyang of more than $1.3bn in annual revenues and boosting pressure on Kim Jong Un’s regime following its recent nuclear test.
The measures, which include an embargo on textile exports, a halt to employing additional North Korean workers overseas and a cap on refined petroleum trading that will reduce oil imports by 30 per cent, won support from China and Russia, but only after stronger proposals circulated by the US were watered down.
“Combined with the previous Security Council resolutions, over 90 per cent of North Korea’s publicly reported 2016 exports of $2.7bn are now banned,” said a statement from the US mission to the UN, adding they were “the strongest sanctions ever imposed on North Korea”.