Later this week, there will be a vote on a U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution, dealing with the ban of items being sold to North Korea’s ruling elite such as yachts and racing cars. Susan Rice, the US Ambassador to the United Nations circulated the draft resolution, which after three weeks of negotiations, was agreed to by Washington and Beijing.
The draft was agreed on by the the 15-nation council earlier on March 5, 2013 . The latest sanctions were in response to North Korea’s February 12, 2013 nuclear test. Since the year 2006, the export of luxury goods to North Korea has been prohibited. This happened when the council imposed sanctions on Pyongyang, after its first nuclear test. However, the council has never mentioned what specific luxury goods were being prohibited. It was then left to the individual states to decide what constitutes a luxury item, this often enabled North Koreans to subvert the ban.
The draft is expected to be voted on by March 7, 2013 and calls for ending the delivery of specific items to North Korea, like certain types of jewelry, yachts, racing cars and luxury automobiles. In the past, the US has imposed sanctions on the country following rocket and missile tests that have been controversial on the international nuclear test scene.
