The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea warned that UN sanctions against the country only motivates the military to accelerate nuclear weapons development, according to the state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).
On September 11, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 2375. According to the measure, states cannot participate in "the opening, maintenance, and operation of all joint ventures or cooperative entities, new and existing, with DPRK entities or individuals, whether or not acting for or on behalf of the government of the DPRK." The sanctions ban all North Korean textile exports, place a cap on petroleum and refined petroleum products, and initiate a sunsetting of DPRK labor exports, according to a September 15 38 North analysis.
According to 38 North "the provisions on petroleum and refined product may build a base for future action" however "the remaining sanctions are unlikely to do very much at all, in and of themselves, to increase pain on the DRPK."
From Pyongyang’s perspective, UN Security Council Resolution 2375 is "the most vicious, unethical and inhumane act of hostility to physically exterminate the people of the DPRK, let alone its system and government," a DPRK foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by KCNA.
The Security Council’s measures are aimed at reducing North Korea’s access to financing and supplies that might be used to support weapons of mass destruction programs, but analysts remain skeptical most of the measures will have any real enforcement teeth, thus blunting immediate economic impacts.
For instance, the cap on crude oil trade has "no such reporting requirement so the cap on the shipments of crude is really on the honor system," 38 North reports. The ban on exporting North Korean migrant laborers will be "quite hard to enforce," researchers said, while the prevention of textile exports "is likely an economic mirage."
This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.