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U.N. Resolution to Aim at North Korean Banks and Diplomats U.N. Resolution to Aim at North Korean Banks and Diplomats
(about 2 hours later)
Bolstered by support from China, the United States introduced a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that would expand and intensify sanctions on North Korea because of its nuclear test last month, targeting North Korean banking transactions and what the American ambassador called illicit activities by North Korean diplomats. The United Nations Security Council moved closer on Tuesday to expanding sanctions that penalize North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic missile activities, with the United States and China introducing a resolution that would target North Korean bankers and overseas cash couriers, tighten inspections of suspect ship and air cargo and subject the country’s diplomats to invasive scrutiny and increased risk of expulsion.
The resolution — the fourth against North Korea — drew a furious reaction from that isolated country even before it was formally distributed among the 15 Security Council members. The move followed three weeks of delicate back-and-forth negotiations between the United States, the resolution’s principal sponsor, and China, North Korea’s major benefactor, which has nevertheless grown increasingly impatient with the North’s nuclear activities. Passage of the measure, drafted in response to the third North Korean underground nuclear test three weeks ago, seemed all but assured, in part because China — North Korea’s major benefactor — participated in drafting the language. It would be the fourth Security Council sanctions resolution on North Korea, which has defied the previous measures with increasing belligerence. A vote was expected on Thursday.
“North Korea will be subject to some of the toughest sanctions imposed by the United Nations,” the American ambassador, Susan E. Rice, told reporters on Tuesday. She said the scope of the sanctions, aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, “is exceptional and demonstrates the strength of the international community’s commitment.” Infuriated, North Korea vowed to scrap the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War and threatened to attack the United States with what the North Korean government news agency called an arsenal of diverse “lighter and smaller nukes.”
The resolution will punish “the illicit activities of North Korean diplomatic personnel, North Korean banking relationships, illicit transfers of bulk cash,” she said. American officials played down the North Korean warning, which echoed earlier bombastic admonitions of war and revenge that have become part of the propaganda emanating from Pyongyang. Still, the threat of a North Korean nuclear attack seemed all the more provocative, coming barely two days after North Korea had conveyed a warm message of friendship to a visiting American group that included Dennis Rodman, the celebrity basketball star.
The full text of the draft was not made immediately available outside the council. But a Security Council diplomat familiar with the text, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the language may still be subject to some revision, said it breaks “new ground” with restrictions and prohibitions on North Korean banking financial transactions, new travel restrictions and increased scrutiny of North Korean ship and air cargo. The diplomat also said the resolution adds a special lubricant and valve, needed for uranium enrichment, to a list of items that North Korea cannot legally import. Susan E. Rice, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, who introduced the resolution in a closed session of the 15-member Security Council, told reporters afterward that it “builds upon, strengthens and significantly expands the scope of the strong U.N. sanctions already in place.”
The resolution would also place greater scrutiny on North Korean diplomatic personnel who are suspected of carrying proscribed goods and cash under the guise of official business, exposing them to possible expulsion from host countries. “We know there are diplomats out there cooking up deals and moving funds around,” he said. For the first time, she said, the resolution would target “the illicit activities of North Korean diplomatic personnel, North Korean banking relationships, illicit transfers of bulk cash and new travel restrictions.” In the past, the North Korean state has been accused of running extensive counterfeiting and illegal drug enterprises, to raise much needed hard currency.
Reuters quoted the Chinese ambassador, Li Baodong, as saying the council intended to vote on the resolution on Thursday. Given China’s support, passage is likely. Ms. Rice declined to predict whether the North would respond with another nuclear test or other form of retaliation. “All I can tell you is that the international community is united and very firm in its opposition to North Korea’s illicit nuclear and missile programs,” she said. “And the more provocations that occur, the more isolated and improved, sadly, North Korea will become.”
“A strong signal must be sent out that a nuclear test is against the will of the international community,” Mr. Li was quoted by Reuters as saying. The Americans did not release the resolution text publicly. But a Security Council diplomat familiar with the measure, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the language may still be subject to some revision, said it breaks “new ground” with restrictions and prohibitions on North Korean banking financial transactions, new travel restrictions and increased monitoring of North Korean ship and air cargo. The diplomat also said the resolution added a special lubricant and valve, needed for uranium enrichment, to a list of items that North Korea cannot legally import.
Earlier Tuesday as word spread that a resolution was moving forward, North Korea vowed to cut off the hot line with the United States military in South Korea, saying it considered the 1953 truce that halted the Korean War null and void, and threatened to strike the United States with “lighter and smaller nukes.” The resolution would also place greater scrutiny on North Korean diplomatic personnel who are suspected of carrying proscribed goods and cash under the guise of official business, exposing them to possible deportation. “We know there are diplomats out there cooking up deals and moving funds around,” the Security Council diplomat said.
The North Koreans have vowed many times before to retaliate for sanctions, however, and their latest admonitions, distributed via the official Korean Central News Agency, were largely seen as bluster. Among the other provisions, the diplomat said the resolution also contained new language aimed at enforcement that had been absent from the earlier resolutions. It requires, for example, that if a North Korean cargo vessel crew refuses a host country’s request for inspection, the host is under a legal obligation to deny the vessel port access. If a cargo plane is suspected of carrying prohibited goods to or from North Korea, it must be denied permission to fly over any other country — a new requirement specifically affecting China, which has routinely permitted all North Korean air traffic to traverse its airspace.
While embracing the sanctions efforts, the Chinese, North Korea’s main ally, did not go as far as the United States would have liked, diplomats said. Previous rounds of sanctions have sought to curtail North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions by blacklisting trading and financial firms believed to be directly involved with such programs. The sanctions have also restricted the import of luxury goods, an effort directed at the country’s ruling elite.
The support of China, with its Security Council veto power and economic ties to North Korea, was considered vital in building international support for actions against North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. China provides all of North Korea’s fuel and remains its biggest trading partner, but analysts believe that its influence on North Korea is nevertheless limited. American officials said privately that the latest resolution did not go as far as they would have liked, reflecting China’s insistence that the punitive measures remain focused on discouraging North Korea’s nuclear and missile behavior and avoid actions that could destabilize the country and lead to an economic collapse. But the text was stronger than what some North Korean experts had anticipated, particularly the measures that could slow or frustrate the country’s banking activities and extensive dependence on cash payments in its trade with other countries.
The sanctions, if approved, would be the latest United Nations action in response to North Korea’s weapons development. After the Security Council approved a round of sanctions in January, acting after a North Korean rocket launch the month before, an increasingly belligerent North Korea threatened both the United States and South Korea militarily, and just weeks later detonated its third nuclear device. “Going after the banking system in a broad brush way is arguably the strongest thing on this list,” said Evans J.R. Revere, a former State Department diplomat specializing in East Asian and Pacific affairs, and now senior director at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington-based consulting firm. “It does begin to eat into the ability of North Korea to finance many things.”
Previous rounds of sanctions have tried to curtail North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions by blacklisting trading and financial firms believed to be involved with such programs. The sanctions have also restricted the importation of luxury goods, an effort directed at the country’s ruling elite. He attributed North Korea’s particularly bellicose reaction on Tuesday to an accumulation of perceived affronts: China’s cooperation in drafting the sanctions, the annual military exercises under way between the United States and South Korea and a hardened attitude toward the North by the South’s newly elected president, Park Geun-hye.
Diplomats have said that future rounds of sanctions could expand the number of entities that come under the sanctions umbrella and heighten enforcement, perhaps even through cargo inspections. “This is North Korea’s way of saying, ‘We know you guys are doing several things, and here is our response,’” Mr. Revere said.
Russia signaled it would support the latest sanctions effort. Gennady Gatilov, a Russian deputy foreign minister, said that Russia could support sanctions that solely target North Korea’s advanced weapons systems.

Reporting was contributed by Gerry Mullany from Hong Kong, Jane Perlez from Beijing and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, South Korea.

“It will be acceptable to us if the restrictive measures do not go beyond the boundaries of missile and nuclear issues,” he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Rick Gladstone reported from New York, and Gerry Mullany from Hong Kong. Jane Perlez contributed reporting from Beijing and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, South Korea.