[In response to North Korea’s rapid acceleration of its nuclear and missile programs, the Security Council has adopted a series of sanctions resolutions in recent years. The toughest, last year, banned key North Korean exports like coal, seafood and textiles, as well as drastically reducing the amount of petroleum the North was allowed to import.]
By
CHOE SANG-HUN
 |
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The
Friendship Bridge connecting North Korea, background, and China. The North
is
accused of using false paperwork to evade sanctions on its coal exports.
Credit
Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
|
SEOUL,
South Korea — The United
Nations Security Council has announced new measures against North Korea,
blacklisting 27 ships, 21 shipping companies and one individual accused of
helping the North evade previous sanctions.
The move increases pressure on the North
ahead of planned summit meetings between its leader, Kim Jong-un, and the
presidents of South Korea and the United States.
The oil tankers and cargo ships on the list,
announced on Friday, were banned from ports worldwide or would have their
assets frozen, and the shipping companies will face an asset freeze. Most of
those named had also been blacklisted by the United States Treasury last month.
In response to North Korea’s rapid
acceleration of its nuclear and missile programs, the Security Council has
adopted a series of sanctions resolutions in recent years. The toughest, last
year, banned key North Korean exports like coal, seafood and textiles, as well
as drastically reducing the amount of petroleum the North was allowed to
import.
The North has been accused of using false
paperwork to continue coal exports and of importing oil through illegal
ship-to-ship transfers on the high seas.
“The approval of this historic sanctions
package is a clear sign that the international community is united in our
efforts to keep up maximum pressure on the North Korean regime,” said Nikki
Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations. She said it was the
largest-ever such United Nations blacklist targeting the North.
The companies blacklisted included 12 based
in North Korea, three in Hong Kong and two on the Chinese mainland.
Some analysts said that Mr. Kim’s recent
agreement to meet with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea in April and later
with President Trump was driven in part by a desire to ease sanctions. But
Washington and its allies have vowed to keep up with sanctions until the North
commits to denuclearizing.
This week, Mr. Kim made his first foreign
trip since taking power six years ago, meeting the Chinese president, Xi
Jinping, in Beijing. His country has also refrained from conducting major
weapons tests since late November, when it launched an intercontinental
ballistic missile that analysts said could be powerful enough to reach the
mainland United States.
Satellite imagery, however, suggests the
country is firing up a new nuclear reactor capable of producing plutonium, one
of the main fuels used in nuclear arms, according to a report by Jane’s
Intelligence Review and the Center for International Security and Cooperation
at Stanford University.
Mr. Kim kept up his relative diplomatic
openness by meeting the president of International Olympic Committee, Thomas
Bach, in Pyongyang on Friday. Mr. Bach said the North Korean leader was
committed to having his country participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics in
Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, according to The Associated Press
in a dispatch from Pyongyang.
The North Korean leader started his
diplomatic overtures by sending a delegation to the Winter Olympics in
Pyeongchang, South Korea, earlier this year.
