Press. voanews.com
The U.N.
Security Council on Friday unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea
following its latest intercontinental ballistic missile test, a move that
analysts said could have a significant impact on the isolated country's
struggling economy.
The resolution
seeks to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum product exports to North
Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and, in what diplomats said was
a last-minute change, demands the repatriation of North Koreans working abroad
within 24 months, instead of 12 months as first proposed.
The U.S.-drafted
resolution would also cap crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4 million
barrels a year. The United States has been calling on China to limit its oil
supply to its neighbor and ally. The resolution
passed by a vote of 15 to 0, said Japan's ambassador to the United Nations.
Japan holds the presidency of the Security Council this month.
North Korea on
November 29 said it successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic
missile in a "breakthrough" that puts the U.S. mainland within range
of its nuclear weapons whose warheads could withstand re-entry to the Earth's
atmosphere.
‘Unambiguous
message’
"It [the
resolution] sends the unambiguous message to Pyongyang that further defiance
will invite further punishments and isolation," Nikki Haley, the U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, said following the vote.
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