Tag Archives: North Korea

EU considers more North Korea sanctions after U.N. vote, diplomats say

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union is considering additional measures against North Korea following the approval of harsh new sanctions by the U.N. Security Council in order to show solidarity with South Korea and Japan, both major trade partners, diplomats said.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has welcomed Wednesday’s U.N. unanimous vote to expand existing sanctions following North Korea’s latest nuclear test and rocket launch, saying the bloc would update its sanctions regime.

“There is scope for the European Union to adopt additional autonomous restrictive measures to complement and reinforce the new U.N. measures,” said a diplomatic note seen by Reuters on the latest discussions.

Germany, France, Spain and Poland want to see what more the bloc can do in areas such as finance and insurance, as well as hitting more North Koreans with asset freezes.

Germany, one of seven EU member states to have an embassy in Pyongyang, also wants better monitoring of the “non-diplomatic” activities of North Korean envoys, EU diplomats said.

While far from Europe, North Korea is a concern to NATO and to the EU’s Asian trade partners.

“This is about supporting our allies Japan and South Korea, who are directly threatened by North Korea’s aggression,” said one EU diplomat involved in the discussions on further measures.

The foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan, which are both in range of North Korea’s ballistic missiles, have phoned Mogherini in recent weeks to urge maximum pressure on Pyongyang.

But the EU’s leverage over the isolated communist state is limited because Germany, Sweden and others are unwilling to cut diplomatic ties. Sweden, present in Pyongyang since the 1970s, is among those providing humanitarian aid to North Koreans.

Given that the United States says the new United Nations sanctions go further than any other U.N. sanctions regime in two decades, the EU’s measures, once updated, also leave little room to go further and new steps still need to be discussed.

Trade between the 28-nation European Union and North Korea fell to just 34 million euros in 2014 from more than 300 million euros a decade ago.

EU foreign ministers have reinforced their sanctions several times in recent years to include asset freezes and bans on financing and the delivery of banknotes.

EU countries also cannot export arms or metals used in ballistic missile systems and are banned from selling gold, diamonds and luxury goods to North Korea. Joint ventures are outlawed.

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

U.N. imposes harsh new sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program

By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – North Korea faces harsh new U.N. sanctions to starve it of money for its nuclear weapons program following a unanimous Security Council vote on Wednesday on a resolution drafted by the United States and Pyongyang’s ally China.

The resolution, which dramatically expands existing sanctions, follows North Korea’s latest nuclear test on Jan. 6 and a Feb. 7 rocket launch that Washington and its allies said used banned ballistic missile technology. Pyongyang said it was a peaceful satellite launch.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said the sanctions go further than any U.N. sanctions regime in two decades and aim to cut off funds for North Korea’s nuclear and other banned weapons programs.

All cargo going to and from North Korea must now be inspected and North Korean trade representatives in Syria, Iran and Vietnam are among 16 individuals added to a U.N. blacklist, along with 12 North Korean entities.

Previously states only had to inspect such shipments if they had reasonable grounds to believe they contained illicit goods.

“Virtually all of the DPRK’s (North Korea) resources are channeled into its reckless and relentless pursuit of weapons of mass destruction,” Power told the council after the vote, adding that the cargo inspection provisions are “hugely significant.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the 15-nation council’s move, saying in a statement that Pyongyang “must return to full compliance with its international obligations.”

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 because of its four nuclear tests and multiple rocket launches.

After nearly two months of bilateral negotiations that at one point involved U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, China agreed to support the unusually tough measures intended to persuade its close ally to abandon its atomic weapons program.

China’s Ambassador Liu Jieyi called for a return to dialogue, saying: “Today’s adoption should be a new starting point and a paving stone for political settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.”

However, he reiterated Beijing’s concerns about the possible deployment of an advanced U.S. missile system in South Korea.

“At this moment all parties concerned should avoid actions that will further aggravate tension on the ground,” he said. “China opposes the deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system … because such an action harms the strategic and security interests of China and other countries of the region.”

He was referring to the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

There was no immediate reaction from the North Korean U.N. mission. The official North Korean news agency KCNA said on Monday the proposed sanctions were “a wanton infringement on (North Korea’s) sovereignty and grave challenge to it.”

Shortly after the U.N. move, the U.S. Treasury Department said it was blacklisting two entities and 10 individuals for ties to North Korea’s government and its banned weapons programs, and said the State Department was also blacklisting three entities and two individuals for similar reasons.

The new U.N. sanctions close a gap in the U.N. arms embargo on Pyongyang by banning all weapons imports and exports.

The Security Council’s list of explicitly banned luxury goods has been expanded to include luxury watches, aquatic recreational vehicles, snowmobiles worth more than $2,000, lead crystal items and recreational sports equipment.

There is also an unprecedented ban on the transfer to North Korea of any item that could directly contribute to the operational capabilities of its armed forces, such as trucks that could be modified for military purposes.

The new U.N. measures also blacklist 31 ships owned by North Korean shipping firm Ocean Maritime Management Company (OMM).

Added to the U.N. sanctions list was the National Aerospace Development Agency, or NADA, the body responsible for February’s rocket launch.

Newly blacklisted individuals include a senior official in North Korea’s long-range missile program, senior officials at NADA, officials for Tanchon Commercial Bank in Syria and Vietnam, and Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID) representatives in Iran and Syria.

An earlier draft would have blacklisted 17 individuals but the proposed designation of a KOMID representative in Russia was dropped from the final version of the resolution.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish)

South Korea demands more sanctions on ‘serial offender’ North

By Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles

GENEVA (Reuters) – South Korea’s foreign minister called on the U.N. Security Council to expand sanctions on North Korea on Wednesday to punish what he called an escalating and increasingly threatening nuclear program.

Yun Byung-se called North Korea a “serial offender” and denounced Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test and latest long-range missile launch, carried out in January and February.

North Korea’s Ambassador Se Pyong So said his country’s nuclear program was designed to ensure peace on the divided Korean peninsula, and warned that more sanctions would bring a “tougher reaction”.

Both men addressed the U.N.-backed Conference on Disarmament in Geneva hours before major powers were scheduled to vote at the U.N. Security Council across the Atlantic on a resolution to expand sanctions on North Korea.

The United States also condemned Pyongyang’s actions.

“The international community stands united in its firm opposition to the DPRK’s development and possession of nuclear weapons,” Christopher Buck, deputy U.S. disarmament ambassador, told the Geneva talks.

“We do not and will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.”

LANDMARK RESOLUTION

After nearly two months of bilateral negotiations, China last month agreed to support new measures in the Security Council to try and persuade its ally North Korea to abandon its atomic weapons program.

Pyongyang has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 because of its nuclear tests and multiple rocket launches.

“It’s no wonder that the Security Council will very soon put up a landmark resolution with the strongest ever non-military sanction measures in seven decades of U.N. history,” South Korea’s Yun said.

The credibility of the nuclear non-proliferation regime needed to be protected, he added.

“Even at this moment, Pyongyang is accelerating its nuclear weapons and missile capabilities from nuclear bombs and hydrogen bombs to ICBMs and SLBMs,” he said referring to intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

“We have heard Pyongyang officially state its intention not only to further develop its nuclear weapons and missiles but also to use them.”

Japan’s parliamentary vice-minister for foreign affairs, Masakazu Hamachi, said North Korea’s actions had undermined the security of Northeast Asia and the rest of the world.

North Korea’s envoy retorted that the nuclear program was “not directed to harm the fellow countryman but to protect peace on the Korean Peninsula and security in the region from the U.S. vicious nuclear war scenario.”

“The more sanctions will bring about tougher reaction,” So said.

(Reporting by Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay; writing by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Andrew Heavens and John Stonestreet)

U.N. delays vote on tough new North Korea sanctions at Russia’s request

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations Security Council delayed until Wednesday a vote on a U.S.-Chinese drafted resolution that would dramatically expand U.N. sanctions on North Korea after Russia said it needed more time to review the text, diplomats said.

The vote, which had been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, is now planned for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

“Subsequent to the United States’ request … to schedule a council vote for this afternoon, Russia invoked a procedural 24-hour review of the resolution, so the vote will be on Wednesday,” the U.S. mission to the United Nations said in a statement to reporters.

The expanded sanctions, if adopted, would require inspections of all cargo going to and from North Korea and blacklisting North Koreans active in Syria, Iran and Vietnam.

After nearly two months of bilateral negotiations that at one point involved U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, China agreed to support the unusually tough measures intended to persuade its close ally North Korea to abandon its atomic weapons program.

Last week the United States presented the 15-nation council with the draft resolution that would significantly tighten restrictions after North Korea’s nuclear test and Feb. 7 rocket launch, and create what it described as the toughest U.N. sanctions regime in two decades.

Originally Washington had wanted the council to adopt the resolution last weekend but Russia had demanded more time to study it.

The draft seen by Reuters would require U.N. member states to conduct mandatory inspections of all cargo passing through their territory to or from North Korea to look for illicit goods. Previously states only had to do this if they had reasonable grounds to believe there was illicit cargo.

The list of explicitly banned luxury goods will be expanded to include luxury watches, aquatic recreational vehicles, snowmobiles worth more than $2,000, lead crystal items and recreational sports equipment.

Pyongyang denied the Feb. 7 launch involved banned ballistic missile technology, saying it was a peaceful satellite launch.

The official North Korean news agency KCNA said in a commentary on Monday its “position as a satellite manufacturer and launcher will never change (and) … space development is not something to be given up because of someone’s ‘sanctions’.”

It called the proposed sanctions “a wanton infringement on (North Korea’s) sovereignty and grave challenge to it.”

The proposal would also close a gap in the U.N. arms embargo on Pyongyang by banning all weapons imports and exports.

There would also be an unprecedented ban on the transfer to North Korea of any item that could directly contribute to the operational capabilities of its armed forces, such as trucks that could be modified for military purposes.

Other proposed measures include a ban on all supplies of aviation and rocket fuel to North Korea, a requirement for states to expel North Korean diplomats engaging in illicit activities, and blacklisting 16 North Korean individuals and 12 entities, including the National Aerospace Development Agency, or NADA, the body responsible for February’s rocket launch.

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 because of its four nuclear tests and multiple rocket launches.

Candidates for the blacklist include Choe Chun-sik, who was head of North Korea’s long-range missile program; Hyon Kwang Il, senior official at NADA; Yu Chol U, director of NADA; Jang Bom Sun and Jon Myong Guk, Tanchon Commercial Bank officials in Syria; Jang Yon Son and Kim Yong Chol, Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID) representatives in Iran; and Kang Ryong and Ryu Jun, KOMID representatives in Syria.

Two Tanchon bank representatives in Vietnam are also to be blacklisted.

In addition to NADA, North Korean entities to be blacklisted include the Academy of National Defense Sciences, Chongchongang Shipping Co and the Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry.

Also new, countries will be required, not just encouraged, to freeze the assets of North Korean entities linked to Pyongyang’s nuclear or missile programs and to prohibit the opening of new branches or offices of North Korean banks or to engage in banking correspondence with them

North Korea says U.S. student confessed to stealing item with propaganda slogan

SEOUL (Reuters) – A U.S. student held in North Korea since early January was detained for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his Pyongyang hotel and has confessed to “severe crimes” against the state, the North’s official media said on Monday.

Otto Warmbier, 21, a University of Virginia student, was detained before boarding his flight to China over an unspecified incident at his hotel, his tour agency told Reuters in January.

North Korea has a long history of detaining foreigners and has used jailed U.S. citizens in the past to exact high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.

“I committed the crime of taking out a political slogan from the staff-only area of the Yanggakdo International Hotel,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted Warmbier as telling media in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. It did not say what the item was.

CNN showed video of a sobbing Warmbier saying: “I have made the worst mistake of my life, but please act to save me.”

Warmbier said a “deaconess” had offered him a used car worth $10,000 if he could present a U.S. church with the slogan as a “trophy” from North Korea, KCNA said.

The acquaintance also said the church would pay his mother $200,000 if he was detained by the North and did not return, KCNA quoted Warmbier as saying.

“My crime is very severe and pre-planned,” Warmbier was quoted as saying, adding that he was impressed by North Korea’s “humanitarian treatment of severe criminals like myself.”

The White House said on Monday it was aware of Warmbier’s situation and was working closely with Sweden, the United States’ protecting power in North Korea, to learn as much as it can about Warmbier’s detention.

“There’s no greater priority for the administration than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a daily briefing.

Warmbier’s parents have not heard from him since his arrest, according to a statement from his family provided by the University of Virginia.

“I hope the fact that he has conveyed his sincere apology for anything that he may have done wrong will now make it possible for the DPRK (North Korea) authorities to allow him to return home,” the statement said.

“I urge the DPRK government to consider his youth and make an important humanitarian gesture by allowing him to return to his loved ones.”

Other Westerners detained in North Korea previously have confessed to crimes against the state.

North Korea’s state media said in January that Warmbier “was caught committing a hostile act against the state”, which it said was “tolerated and manipulated by the U.S. government”.

The senior pastor at Friendship United Methodist Church in Wyoming, Ohio, told CNN he did not know the person identified by Warmbier in the KCNA story as a deaconess there, and said Warmbier was not a member of the congregation.

Warmbier, a member of the Theta Chi fraternity at the University of Virginia, is studying economics with a minor in global sustainability, according to his Linkedin page. Members of the fraternity were not immediately available for comment.

Warmbier was a finance and operations intern at Finishing Technology, his father’s firm, from June 2010 to August 2013, and helped run a student investment fund at the University of Virginia, according to his Linkedin profile.

He also took a class at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2015.

According to KCNA, Warmbier said he was encouraged in his act by a member of the Z Society, an elite philanthropic organization that he hoped to join at the university.

An official in the university’s communications office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Warmbier grew up in Wyoming, Ohio, northeast of Cincinnati. He attended Wyoming High School, where he was the salutatorian of his graduating class and was named student of the year, according to Linkedin.

A district spokeswoman declined to speak about his time at the school.

Warmbier was active in swimming when he was younger, according to a blog operated by a local athletic booster organization, and he volunteered as a coach for a local children’s swim team.

Warmbier, on a five-day New Year’s tour of North Korea with a group of 20, was delayed at immigration before being taken away by two airport officials, according to a tour operator that had sponsored the trip.

While most tourists to North Korea are from China, roughly 6,000 Westerners visit annually, though the United States and Canada advise against it.

Most are curious about life behind the last sliver of the iron curtain and ignore critics who say their dollars prop up a repressive regime.

Isolated North Korea is expected to face a tough new U.N. Security Council resolution tightening sanctions against it following its nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch this month.

(Additional reporting by Jee Heun Kahng in Seoul, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Marcus Howard in New York and Megan Cassella in Washington; Editing by Nick Macfie and James Dalgleish)

Proposed North Korea sanctions dig deep, implementation falls to China

SEOUL (Reuters) – From inspecting visiting North Korean ships to paring back coal imports, the burden of enforcing new U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang falls mainly on China, which wants to punish its ally for nuclear violations without squeezing it to the point of crisis.

After nearly two months of negotiations between Washington and Beijing, China agreed on Thursday to a U.S. proposal that would dramatically tighten existing restrictions on North Korea after its Jan. 6 nuclear test and recent rocket launch.

The draft, seen by Reuters, would require U.N. member states to conduct mandatory inspections of all cargo passing through their territory to or from North Korea and bans all gold exports, as well as exports of coal if proceeds fund the North’s weapons programs.

For China, which accounts for 90 percent of North Korean trade, that means stepping up inspections at sea ports such as Dalian and in the border city of Dandong, through which much of the trade between the countries passes.

China, which defended North Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War, is Pyongyang’s closest ally and largest trading partner. While it has become increasingly critical of the North’s nuclear and missiles programs, it prizes stability on the Korean peninsula.

“It might look like China is cooperating, but that’ll just be on the surface,” said Kim Dong-yub at Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

The two countries share a fairly porous 870-mile border where both legal and illicit trade has grown in recent years, and off-the-books trade accounts for a significant share of commerce between the two.

“Until these trade routes are shut off, the structure there makes it too difficult for sanctions to effectively kick in,” said Kim.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China believes the new sanctions should be aimed at reining in North Korea’s nuclear and missile program, and should not affect ordinary people, and that what is most needed is to get negotiations back on track.

Asked about criticism China had not fully enforced previous sanctions, Hong disagreed. “China consistently strictly abides by its relevant decisions,” he said.

AT THE COAL FACE

The draft resolution targets impoverished North Korea’s heavy reliance on mineral exports by banning the sale or transfer of North Korean coal, iron and iron ore if profits are deemed to be spent on its nuclear or missile programs.

Minerals for sale which are “exclusively for livelihood purposes” are exempted, which analysts said would be impossible to monitor.

“You can’t determine which part of the mineral trade is related to people’s livelihoods or not,” said Choi Kyung-soo, head of the North Korea Resources Institute in Seoul, who made dozens of trips to North Korean state mines between 2001 and 2008 as part of an inter-Korean cooperation team.

China imported $852 million worth of North Korean coal last year and $73 million worth of iron ore, according to Chinese customs data.

Last year, North Korean coal deliveries to China surged 26.9 pct to 19.63 million tonnes, making North Korea China’s third biggest supplier behind Australia and Indonesia. Coal deliveries from Australia plunged 25 percent, indicating the increase in imports may have been to help support its ally.

‘HUMANITARIAN PROBLEM’

Jin Qiangyi of China’s Yanbian University, near the North Korean border, told Reuters there was a “real possibility” such far-reaching sanctions on top of an already moribund economy could create a “humanitarian problem”, and affect China’s ability to safely implement the proposed sanctions.

“China has to think about what will happen to the North Korean economy, whether there will be other problems,” said Jin.

Critics of sanctions argue they would stifle the country’s fledgling economy and hurt ordinary North Koreans.

A senior Western diplomat in Beijing who declined to be identified said China remains wary of cutting off North Korea completely, and insists ordinary North Koreans should not be punished for the behavior of their leader.

The draft resolution also proposes banning all exports of aviation fuel to North Korea, except for in “essential” and “humanitarian” cases, which could make it difficult stage an air show planned for September in the port city of Wonsan that is to include aerobatic displays by the North Korean air force.

Much of North Korea’s aviation fuel appears to come from China. In 2015, the isolated country spent $876.6 million importing 1,414 tonnes of Chinese jet fuel according to Chinese customs data – enough for North Korea to operate its fleet of largely Soviet-era military aircraft.

“The draft is very strong and, if adopted as now written, was definitely worth the wait it took to plug loopholes and toughen restrictions on transport and finance,” William Newcomb, a former member of the United Nations Panel of Experts on North Korea, told Reuters.

“Implementation remains a challenge, however. Not even all members of the Security Council have implemented past resolutions”.

(Additional reporting by David Stanway, Megha Rajagopalan and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING and Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols at the UNITED NATIONS; Editing by Tony Munroe and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

U.S. test-fires ICBMs to stress its power to Russia, North Korea

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (Reuters) – The U.S. military test-fired its second intercontinental ballistic missile in a week on Thursday night, seeking to demonstrate its nuclear arms capacity at a time of rising strategic tensions with Russia and North Korea.

The unarmed Minuteman III missile roared out of a silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California late at night, raced across the sky at speeds of up to 15,000 mph and landed a half hour later in a target area 4,200 miles away near Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands of the South Pacific.

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, who witnessed the launch, said the U.S. tests, conducted at least 15 times since January 2011, send a message to strategic rivals like Russia, China and North Korea that Washington has an effective nuclear arsenal.

“That’s exactly why we do this,” Work told reporters before the launch.

“We and the Russians and the Chinese routinely do test shots to prove that the operational missiles that we have are reliable. And that is a signal … that we are prepared to use nuclear weapons in defense of our country if necessary.”

Demonstrating the reliability of the nuclear force has taken on additional importance recently because the U.S. arsenal is near the end of its useful life and a spate of scandals in the nuclear force two years ago raised readiness questions.

The Defense Department has poured millions of dollars into improving conditions for troops responsible for staffing and maintaining the nuclear systems. The administration also is putting more focus on upgrading the weapons.

President Barack Obama’s final defense budget unveiled this month calls for a $1.8 billion hike in nuclear arms spending to overhaul the country’s aging nuclear bombers, missiles, submarines and other systems.

The president’s $19 billion request would allow the Pentagon and Energy Department to move toward a multiyear overhaul of the atomic arms infrastructure that is expected to cost $320 billion over a decade and up to 1 trillion dollars over 30 years.

The nuclear spending boost is an ironic turn for a president who made reducing U.S. dependence on atomic weapons a centerpiece of his agenda during his first years in office.

Obama called for a world eventually free of nuclear arms in a speech in Prague and later reached a new strategic weapons treaty with Russia. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in part based on his stance on reducing atomic arms.

“He was going to de-emphasize the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. national security policy … but in fact in the last few years he has emphasized new spending,” said John Isaacs of the Council for a Livable World, an arms control advocacy group.

Critics say the Pentagon’s plans are unaffordable and unnecessary because it intends to build a force capable of deploying the 1,550 warheads permitted under the New START treaty. But Obama has said the country could further reduce its deployed warheads by a third and still remain secure.

Hans Kristensen, an analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, said the Pentagon’s costly “all-of-the-above” effort to rebuild all its nuclear systems was a “train wreck that everybody can see is coming.” Kingston Reif of the Arms Control Association, said the plans were “divorced from reality.”

The Pentagon could save billions by building a more modest force that would delay the new long-range bomber, cancel the new air launched cruise missile and construct fewer ballistic submarines, arms control advocates said.

Work said the Pentagon understood the financial problem. The department would need $18 billion a year between 2021 and 2035 for its portion of the nuclear modernization, which is coming at the same time as a huge “bow wave” of spending on conventional ships and aircraft, he said.

“If it becomes clear that it’s too expensive, then it’s going to be up to our national leaders to debate” the issue, Work said, something that could take place during the next administration when spending pressures can no longer be ignored.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and John Stonestreet)

U.S. proposes sharp ramping up of North Korea sanctions at U.N.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States presented a draft Security Council resolution on Thursday it negotiated with China that would dramatically tighten existing restrictions on North Korea after its Jan. 6 nuclear test and create the toughest U.N. sanctions regime in over two decades.

The draft, seen by Reuters, would require U.N. member states to conduct mandatory inspections of all cargo passing through their territory to or from North Korea to look for illicit goods. Previously states were only required to do this if they had reasonable grounds to believe there was illicit cargo.

The United States used the nearly two months of bilateral negotiations that at one point involved President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, diplomats said, to win China’s support for unusually tough measures intended to persuade its ally North Korea to abandon its atomic weapons program.

The proposal would close a gap in the U.N. arms embargo on Pyongyang by banning all weapons imports and exports.

There would also be an unprecedented ban on the transfer to North Korea of any item that could directly contribute to the operational capabilities of the North Korean armed forces, such as trucks that could be modified for military purposes.

Other proposed measures include a ban on all supplies of aviation and rocket fuel to North Korea, a requirement for states to expel North Korean diplomats engaging in illicit activities, and blacklisting 17 North Korean individuals and 12 entities, including the National Aerospace Development Agency or ‘NADA’, the body responsible for February’s rocket launch.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told reporters the new measures, if approved, would be “the strongest set of sanctions imposed by the Security Council in more than two decades.”

Several council diplomats predicted a Saturday meeting to adopt the draft but Russian deputy U.N. ambassador Petr Iliichev told Reuters Moscow needed time to study the draft and the earliest likely vote would be next week. The draft was the result of seven weeks of tough negotiations between the United States and China, North Korea’s neighbor and main ally.

“This is a very robust resolution,” a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. “Clearly this took a long time … it was a difficult process.”

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CHINA, U.S.

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 because of its multiple nuclear tests and rocket launches.

China and the United States had differed on how strongly to respond to Pyongyang’s most recent test, with Washington urging harsh punitive measures and Beijing emphasizing dialogue and milder U.N. steps confined to non-proliferation.

The Global Times, an influential Chinese tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party, said in an editorial that North Korea “deserves the punishment” of new sanctions, but China should “cushion Washington’s harsh sanctions to some extent.”

“China insists the sanctions should focus on striking North Korea’s ability to continue developing nuclear weapons. It is the fundamental difference between China’s policy and that of the U.S., South Korea and Japan. China holds unswerving goodwill toward North Korea, which Chinese society hopes Pyongyang can understand,” it said.

Diplomats said a sharp tightening of restrictions was necessary since Pyongyang has proved its determination to flout at all costs attempts at constraining its nuclear and missile programs.

They said they hoped the latest measures would make it harder for North Korea to continue with that policy, keeping up the pressure on the country’s leadership without making the country’s impoverished population any poorer.

“Pyongyang has prioritized the pursuit of these massively expensive programs over absolutely everything else,” the U.S. official said. “So is New York action going to automatically convince the regime’s leaders to cease? I think we’re realistic on that point.”

However, he added that “this resolution will be felt, it will have an impact … The DPRK (North Korea) have never been subject to the kind of pressure that is in the resolution.”

Power said the measures were aimed at the country’s leadership, and “careful not to punish the North Korean people.”

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing on Thursday: “We hope and believe this new resolution can help effectively constrain North Korea from further developing its nuclear missile program”.

There will also be further restrictions aimed at making it more difficult for North Korea to press ahead with its nuclear and missile programs. Pyongyang is currently banned from importing and exporting nuclear and missile technology and is not allowed to import luxury goods. The list of banned items will be expanded.

The U.S. official said one of five annexes to the resolution lists 31 ships owned by North Korean shipping firm Ocean Maritime Management Company Limited, which will be blacklisted.

Also new, countries will be required, not just encouraged, to freeze the assets of North Korean entities linked to Pyongyang’s nuclear or missile programs and to prohibit the opening of new branches or offices of North Korean banks or to engage in banking correspondence with North Korean banks.

(Additional reporting by James Pearson in Seoul and Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by James Dalgleish and Michael Perry)

Sony hackers linked to breaches in 4 other countries, report finds

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The perpetrators of the 2014 cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment were not activists or disgruntled employees, and likely had attacked other targets in China, India, Japan and Taiwan, according to a coalition of security companies that jointly investigated the Sony case for more than a year.

The coalition, organized by security analytics company Novetta, concluded in a report released on Wednesday that the hackers were government-backed but it stopped short of endorsing the official U.S. view that North Korea was to blame.

The Obama administration has tied the attack on Sony Corp’s film studio to its release of “The Interview,” a comedy that depicted the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Novetta said the breach “was not the work of insiders or hacktivists.”

“This is very much supportive of the theory that this is nation-state,” Novetta Chief Executive Peter LaMontagne told Reuters. “This group was more active, going farther back, and had greater capabilities and reach than we thought.”

Novetta worked with the largest U.S. security software vendor Symantec Corp, top Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab and at least 10 other institutions on the investigation, a rare collaboration involving so many companies.

They determined that the unidentified hackers had been at work since at least 2009, five years before the Sony breach. The hackers were able to achieve many of their goals despite modest skills because of the inherent difficulty in establishing an inclusive cyber security defense, the Novetta group said.

LaMontagne said the report was the first to tie the Sony hack to breaches at South Korean facilities including a power plant. The FBI and others had previously said the Sony attackers reused code that had been used in destructive attacks on South Korean targets in 2013.

The Novetta group said the hackers were likely also responsible for denial-of-service attacks that disrupted U.S. and South Korean websites on July 24, 2009. The group said it found overlaps in code, tactics and infrastructure between the attacks.

Symantec researcher Val Saengphaibul said his company connected the hackers to attacks late last year, suggesting the exposure of the Sony breach and the threat of retaliation by the United States had not silenced the gang.

The coalition of security companies distributed technical indicators to help others determine if they had been targeted by the same hackers, which Novetta dubbed the Lazarus Group.

(Reporting by Joseph Menn; Editing by Tiffany Wu)

North Korean leader would use WMD, U.S. general tells lawmakers

The leader of North Korea would use a weapon of mass destruction to protect his authority, the general in charge of the United Nations and United States forces in South Korea said Tuesday.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, the commander of United Nations Command and United States Forces Korea, said tensions on the Korean Peninsula recently hit a 20-year-high and expressed concerns the North “could quickly escalate” the situation.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Security Council condemned a Feb. 7 North Korean satellite launch that U.N. officials said used the same kind of technology as ballistic missiles.

The launch came about a month after North Korea said it tested a nuclear weapon.

“Kim Jong Un has been clear that he intends to establish himself and wants to be accepted as a nuclear nation with a valid missile capability to deliver those assets,” Scaparrotti told the committee about the North Korean dictator. “He claims he can do that today.”

A senator asked Scaparotti if the general believed Kim would use a long-range nuclear missile against the United States, if the dictator actually had such a weapon at his disposal.

“His stated purpose is to protect his regime and if he thought his regime were challenged, he states that he would use WMD,” Scaparrotti responded.

The general testified tensions between North Korea and South Korea peaked in August, when two South Korean soldiers were wounded in a landmine attack in the demilitarized zone.

This year’s tests prompted the United States to impose additional sanctions on North Korea.

“I think (Kim’s) calculus is, at this point, that those tests that he just conducted in January and February, they were within his risk tolerance,” Scaparrotti told the committee. “That he could conduct those and at some point in the future here, in the next three or four months, move beyond it, just as he has done in the cycle of provocation and relaxation over time, which has been their norm. I do worry about his calculation being wrong at some point.”

The general said it was important the United States and its allies continued to deter conflict, and warned about the potential implications if a North Korean provocation escalated the situation.

In prepared testimony, Scaparrotti said the North has “several hundred ballistic missiles,” one of the world’s largest chemical weapons stockpiles and the fourth-largest military on the planet.

“If deterrence fails, full-scale conflict in Korea would more closely parallel the high intensity combat of the Korean War than the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Scaparrotti said in the written testimony he submitted to the committee. “Furthermore, any conflict with North Korea would significantly increase the threat of the use of weapons of mass destruction.”

Scaparrotti testified North Korea is pursuing several other technological advances.

“He’s developing his cyber capability,” Scaparrotti testified, referring to Kim. “He’s developing a strategic-launch ballistic missile. And he’s developing his air defense capabilities. All of those things, in about five or six years, are going to be a more formidable problem.”