The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Friday (June 2) to extend existing sanctions to 14 individuals and four entities in North Korea.
The sanctioned individuals are now subject to a travel ban and asset freeze. The four entities are subject to asset freeze, as listed in UNSC resolution 1718, adopted in 2006.
In addition, the UNSC also reaffirmed its decisions to mandate the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs “in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, and immediately cease all related activities.”
The text of the resolution condemned “in the strongest terms” the country’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development activities, including a series of ballistic missile launches dating back to Sept. 9, 2016, according to a report on the UN site, which said they were conducted “in violation and flagrant disregard” of the UNSC resolutions.
The UNSC vowed in a statement on May 22 to “fully and comprehensively implement all measures” imposed on the country in response to its ballistic missile launch last month. Council members at that time expressed “utmost concern” over Pyongyang’s “highly destabilizing behavior and flagrant and provocative defiance” of the Council, in violation of its international obligations under UNSC resolutions dating back to 2006.
In its statement, the UNSC stressed that the DPRK’s illegal ballistic missile activities are “significantly contributing to its development of nuclear weapons delivery systems and are greatly increasing tension in the region and beyond.” The Council also expressed regret that Pyongyang is “diverting resources to the pursuit of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons while its own citizens ‘have great unmet needs.’”
The body that deals with the UNSC sanctions regime against North Korea is the “1718 Committee,” named for the UNSC resolution under which it was established in 2006.
North Korea has been exchanging weapons and nuclear technology with Iran for a number of years; Iran, meanwhile, has continued its threat to wipe Israel “off the map.”
In an unusual move, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement this past March, explaining the reason behind an Israeli Air Force air strike carried out against Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrilla fighters on Syrian soil.
“Our policy is very consistent,” he said at the time. “When we detect attempts to transfer advanced weapons to Hezbollah, and we have the intelligence, and we have the operational feasibility, we act to prevent it. That’s what happened and that’s what will happen.”
The targeted weapons were reportedly a shipment of highly advanced North Korean missiles.