Foreign Policy Research Institute A Nation Must Think Before it Acts Will the Latest UN Sanctions on North Korea Actually Matter?

Will the Latest UN Sanctions on North Korea Actually Matter?

The Diplomat

On Saturday, August 5, the UN Security Council passed yet another resolution following North Korea’s missile tests. Like Resolution 2270, passed in March 2016, Resolution 2371 also takes aim at North Korea’s mineral exports. The new resolution also bans imports of seafood products from North Korea, and bans member states from hiring new North Korean laborers, but they do not need to fire North Koreans who have already been hired, so it is questionable whether this source of income will decrease and/or disappear, or merely stop increasing.

Unlike Resolution 2270 last year, the new resolution does not appear to contain a humanitarian exemption or any other loophole for mineral imports. In sum, Resolution 2371 appears much more holistic than its predecessors in fully cutting off North Korea’s most central export revenues.

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