North Korea CUT OFF: Nuclear missile development thwarted as petrol supply eliminated

The UN voted unanimously to limit North Korea‘s access to refined petroleum products and crude oil and the sanctions would also ban the regime from exporting food, agricultural products, minerals machinery and electrical equipment.

The United States is heading the campaign to pressure Pyongyang into abandoning its nuclear weapons and missile programmes. 

North Korea has claimed that the whole of the United States is within its reach of a missile attack. 

It is hoped that the sanctions restricting oil imports will starve North Korea of fuel and income for its weapons programmes. 

The UN wants to ban almost 90 per cent of refined petroleum exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and has demanded the repatriation of North Koreans working abroad within 24 months. 

Tension have been brewing over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes.

In November, the secretive nations demanded a stop to what they described as “brutal sanctions”. 

Although the US wants to reach a diplomatic solution to the crisis, they hope that the sanctions will increase pressure on Kim Jong-un.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said: “It sends the unambiguous message to Pyongyang that further defiance will invite further punishments and isolation”.

Wu Haitao, China’s deputy U.N. ambassador, said tensions on the Korean peninsula risk “spiralling out of control” and he repeated Beijing’s call for talks.

South Korea has welcomed the sanctions and called on the North to “immediately cease reckless provocations, and take the path of dialogue for denuclearisation”. 

President Donald Trump hopes that pursuing a “maximum pressure” campaign will urge Mr Kim to come to the negotiating table. 

The White House national security adviser, General HR McMaster, has urged countries to do what they can to force a diplomatic solution on North Korea as he said the possibility of war was “increasing by the day”. 

Russia quietly boosted economic support for North Korea this year, and last week Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said Moscow was not ready to sign up to sanctions that would strangle the country economically.

The sanctions also bans exports to North Korea of industrial equipment, machinery, transport vehicles, and industrial metals as well as subjecting 15 North Koreans and the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces to a global asset freeze and travel ban.

The resolution seeks to allow countries to seize, inspect and freeze any vessel they believe was carrying banned cargo or involved in prohibited activities.

Even if the sanctions have an economic effect, it is not clear whether that would push Pyongyang to negotiate or stop its weapons development, said Kim Sung-han, a former South Korean vice foreign minister.

A foreign ministry spokesman for Kim Jong-un claimed the US “will bitterly regret its strategy”. 

In September, China unveiled its plans to restrict oil supplied to North Korea in a bid to talk Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile development.