The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to tighten sanctions on North Korea after the nation’s recent nuclear test and missile firings. The detonation on May 25 of the suspected nuclear device violated the 1953 armistice.
The Security Counsel used U.N. Resolution 1874 to reign in North Korea. The resolution includes a number of measures aimed at stopping North Korea’s nuclear proliferation, including tougher inspections of cargo, an expanded arms embargo, and new financial restrictions on North Korea, curbing loans and money transfers that serve as funding for their nuclear program.
In remarks today following the vote on Resolution 1874, United States Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo said that North Korea chose a path of provocation, and must now face the consequences. She said that the United States welcomes the strong and united response to North Korea’s nuclear test, and is committed to implementing the provisions outlined by the Security Council:
“The message of this resolution is clear: North Korea’s behavior is unacceptable to the international community, and the international community is determined to respond. North Korea should return without conditions to a process of peaceful dialogue. It should honor its previous commitments to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. It should shun provocation and proliferation. But for now, its choices have led it to face markedly stronger sanctions from the international community.”
“This resolution condemns North Korea’s nuclear test in the strongest terms. It strengthens and enhances sanctions on North Korea in five critically important areas: by imposing a total embargo on arms exports from North Korea and significantly expanding the ban on arms imports; by creating a wholly new framework for states to cooperate in the inspection of ships and aircraft suspected to be carrying weapons of mass destruction or other banned goods; by calling on states and international financial institutions to disrupt the flow of funds that could support North Korea’s missile, nuclear, or proliferation activities; by committing to designate for targeted sanctions additional goods, entities, and individuals involved in North Korea’s illicit behavior; and, finally, by strengthening the mechanisms to monitor and tighten the implementation of this toughened new sanctions regime. These measures are innovative, they are robust, and they are unprecedented.”