Published time: March 07, 2013 15:16
The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution expanding sanctions against North Korea. The new resolution, which was drafted by the US and China, was in response to Pyongyang’s third nuclear test.
The resolution condemns North Korea’s latest nuclear test “in the strongest terms” for violating council resolutions, bans further ballistic missile launches, nuclear tests “or any other provocation,” and demands that North Korea return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The resolution also condemns North Korea’s ongoing nuclear activities, including its uranium enrichment. It also stresses the UN Security Council’s commitment “to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution,” and urges that six-party nuclear talks be resumed.
It calls on states to deny aircraft permission to take off, land or fly over their territory if illicit cargo is suspected to be on board.
In anticipation of the resolution’s adoption, North Korea previously threatened to cancel the 1953 ceasefire that ended the Korean War.
Pyongyang’s third nuclear test, which took place on February 12, was in defiance of three council resolutions which ban North Korea from testing or using nuclear or ballistic missile technology.
The US and its allies fear the nuclear test pushes North Korea closer to gaining nuclear-armed missiles. However, Pyongyang has repeatedly maintained that its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes.
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