Washington seeks to reduce Pyongyang oil imports by half

The Unites States called on the United Nations Security Council to halve a crude oil supply to North Korea and ban its imports of mineral products in a draft resolution, which prohibits not only nuclear and ballistic missile tests but also cruise missiles that are capable of delivering nuclear weapons to reach South Korea and Japan.

Washington circulated a draft resolution against Pyongyang to the 15 UNSC members for the first time in five years following the Security Council Resolution 2397, which was adopted in December 2017, Reuters reported on Wednesday (local time). The draft resolution was written to take action against North Korea’s ICBM launch on March 24, by which it violates a moratorium on nuclear and missile provocations.

The U.S. sought a draft resolution to reduce annual exports of crude oil to North Korea from four million to two million barrels and cut refined petroleum exports in half to 250,000 barrels a year. Cruise missiles were notably put under sanction to make sure that the new resolution extends a ban on any delivery system that can carry nuclear warheads. The UNSC resolution in force stipulates that North Korea shall not launch any ballistic missile nor test nuclear weapons, based on which the Moon Jae-in administration has argued that neither cruise nor short-range ballistic missiles constitute an infringement of the current UNSC resolution.


weappon@donga.com