North Korea slapped with UN sanctions after nuclear test

North Korea slapped with UN sanctions after nuclear test

The United Nations has imposed a fresh round of sanctions on North Korea after its sixth and largest nuclear test.

The measures restrict oil imports and ban textile exports - an attempt to starve the North of fuel and income for its weapons programmes.

The US had originally proposed harsher sanctions including a total ban on oil imports.

The vote was only passed unanimously after Pyongyang allies Russia and China agreed to the reduced measures.

The sanctions, which were passed at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, were met with anger by North Korea.

A statement on state news agency KNCA warned that if the US did eventually push through harsher sanctions, North Korea would "absolutely make sure that the US pays due price".The US call last week for a total ban on oil imports was seen as by some analysts as potentially destabilizing for the regime.

The new sanctions agreed by the UN include:

• Limits on imports of crude oil and oil products. China, Pyongyang's main economic ally, supplies most of North Korea's crude oil.
• A ban on exports of textiles, which is Pyongyang's second-biggest export worth more than $700m (£530m) a year.
• A ban on new visas for North Korean overseas workers, which the US estimates would eventually cut off $500m of tax revenue per year.

A proposed asset freeze and a travel ban on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un were dropped.The US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, told the Security Council after the vote: "We don't take pleasure in further strengthening sanctions today. We are not looking for war."

A South Korean presidential office spokesman said on Tuesday: "North Korea needs to realize that a reckless challenge against international peace will only bring about even stronger sanctions against them."

Monday's resolution was the ninth one unanimously adopted by the UN since 2006.

What have previous sanctions achieved?

• 30 November 2016: UN targeted North Korea's valuable coal trade with China, slashing exports by about 60% under a new sales cap. Exports of copper, nickel, silver, zinc and the sale of statues were also banned.
• What happened next? On 14 May 2017, North Korea tested what it said was a "newly developed ballistic rocket" capable of carrying a large nuclear warhead.
• 2 June 2017: UN imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on four entities and 14 officials, including the head of North Korea's overseas spying operations.
• What happened next? On 4 July, North Korea claimed it carried out its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
• 6 August: UN banned North Korean exports of coal, ore and other raw materials and limited investments in the country, costing Pyongyang an estimated $1bn - about a third of its export economy.
• What happened next? On 3 September, North Korea said it tested a hydrogen bomb that could be miniaturized and loaded on a long-range missile.

China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that North Korea had "ignored international opposition and once again conducted a nuclear test, severely violating UN Security Council resolutions".

It also repeated its call for a "peaceful resolution" instead of a military response, adding: "China will never allow the peninsula to descend into war and chaos."

The BBC's China editor Carrie Gracie says Beijing is treading a fine line and wants sanctions tough enough to signal its displeasure to Pyongyang and avoid American accusations of complicity, but not so tough as to threaten North Korea's survival.

Both Russia and China reiterated their proposal that the US and South Korea freeze all military drills - which anger North Korea - and asked for a halt in the deployment of the controversial anti-missile system Thaad, in exchange for Pyongyang's cessation of its weapons programmes.

Beijing believes Thaad, which employs a powerful radar, is a security threat to China and neighbouring countries.

Ms Haley last week dismissed this proposal as "insulting".

Citation Source:

“North Korea Slapped with New UN Sanctions.” BBC News, BBC, 11 Sept. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41235157.

Response: 

The author wrote this article for the world, not just the United States or the UN. Although this article mentions the United States and the UN many times, the audience that he is directing this article to is the world in general. 
I could tell that there was a lot of bias from the author shown in his writing. The writer mentions many negative aspects of what North Korea is doing and clearly supports the UN for their decisions on sanctions. There were several lines that mentioned peace that the United Nations clearly wanted and there were also several areas where the writer mentioned that North Korea was angered by this. Showing his support for the nations, the writer puts in a line saying that North Korea would only get more sanctions against them if they continued to test nuclear weapons and such.
A bias that the publisher has is clear in that the news station is part of the United Nations. Clearly, this news station would be supporting the UN and would be against North Korea's actions. As I have already mentioned, there was a lot of information about the negative things of North Korea and lots of information on what the UN did.
This article is persuasive in that the UN is doing something good for the people by creating sanctions to keep North Korea from bringing destruction and war. This automatically makes people think that North Korea is terrible and that the nations are doing heroic deeds.
The purpose of this article is mainly to stir up people about North Korea's actions and also to inform them about the sanctions created against North Korea.