The strict US-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution could be voted on as early as tomorrow and would ban nearly all exports of refined petroleum – including petrol and diesel – to Kim Jong-un’s pariah state.
It would also require all North Koreans working outside of the hermit kingdom to return home within 12 months.
This comes after despot Kim tested his latest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-15, on November 29.
Kim’s regime claims the rocket has the range to target anywhere in the United States and Europe.
The draft resolution was circulated around the 15-member council today could be put to a vote this week, diplomats told Reuters.
In order to pass, it would need nine votes in favour and no vetoes by any of the five permanent members: the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.
And while it is not immediately clear how North Korea’s main ally China would vote, usually any draft resolution relating to the hermit state is not presented to the full council until it has been agreed by both by Beijing and Washington.
If approved, the resolution would be the 10th round of UN sanctions slapped on North Korea over its nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile programmes.
The measures, which began in 2006, are aimed at choking off funding to Kim’s regime.
Previous sanctions in September limited the amount of refined petroleum to two million barrels annually.
And the draft resolution would reduce that cap to just 500,000 barrels per year.
The proposals would also ban North Korean exports such as food products, machinery and electrical equipment.
However the secretive state has resorted to increasingly desperate and inventive ways to fund the research and development of more destructive weaponry.
Earlier this year it emerged North Korean agents were using a complex network of shell companies, diplomats and foreign banks to subvert international sanctions and send funds back to Kim’s regime.
And hackers operating on behalf of the rogue state have been linked to a number of high-profile attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges and financial institutions.
But a former North Korean official recently warned harsher sanctions would cripple the country’s already fragile economy and lead to the deaths of civilians.
Speaking in October, Ri Jong-ho, who defected with his family in 2014, said the September sanctions could have potentially fatal consequences.
He told crowds at an Asia Society event in New York: “The sanctions that the White House has imposed on North Korea are of a historic level.
“Never before has the country faced such tough sanctions. I don’t know if North Korea will survive a year with these sanctions.
“People will die.”