U.N. resolution adds 3 N. Korean arms dealers to sanctions list: draft

The U.N. Security Council is set to add three North Korean weapons dealers and two entities to its new resolution to punish the North for conducting its third nuclear test last month, according to a copy of a draft resolution obtained by Yonhap News Agency on Thursday. 

The three North Korean arms dealers are: Yon Chong-nam, the chief representative for the Korea Mining Developing Trading Corp (KOMID); Ko Chol-chae, the deputy chief representative for the KOMID; and Mun Chong-chol, an official at Tanchon Central Bank, the resolution showed. 

KOMID is described by the resolution as North Korea's "primary arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons," while the North Korean bank is the "main DPRK (North Korea) financial entity for sales of conventional arms, ballistic missiles, and goods related to the assembly and manufacturing of such weapons." 

The two North Korean entities are the Second Academy of Natural Sciences, which is responsible for research and development of the North's advanced weapons systems, including "missiles and probably nuclear weapons," and the Korea Complex Equipment Import Corp.

linked to the North's "military-related sales," according to the draft. 

The Security Council is set to vote on the draft resolution on Thursday in New York. 

After weeks of bilateral consultations, the United States and the North's last-remaining ally China agreed this week to the draft resolution, which also calls for mandatory inspections of North Korean ships and planes suspected of carrying banned items, including luxury goods. 

The Security Council "decides that all states shall inspect all cargo within or transiting through their territory that has originated in the DPRK, or that is destined for the DPRK," the draft said. 

It also "calls upon states to deny permission to any aircraft to take off from, land in or overfly their territory, if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the aircraft contains items" banned by previous U.N. resolutions, the document said. 

It also makes it difficult for North Korea to move in and out "bulk cash," in an effort to squeeze the North Korean elite's access to hard currency. 

The Security Council also calls on all states to "exercise enhanced vigilance over DPRK diplomatic personnel so as to prevent such individuals from contributing to the DPRK's nuclear or ballistic missile programs," it said. 

The U.N.'s powerful body "expresses its determination to take further significant measures in the event of a further DPRK launch or nuclear test," the draft warned. 

North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on Feb. 12, defying international warnings of tougher sanctions and raising the prospect that Pyongyang might be a step closer to a workable long-range nuclear missile. 

So far, it has remained unclear whether North Korea used plutonium or uranium to fuel last month's test and monitoring for signs of radioactive seepage from the North has failed to answer the question. 

Apparently mindful of the North's uranium concerns, the draft resolution includes Pyongyang's uranium enrichment program for the first time, condemning "all the DPRK's ongoing nuclear activities, including its "uranium enrichment." 

The North claims its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful energy development, but outside experts believe that it would give the country a new source of fission material to make atomic bombs, in addition to its widely known plutonium-based nuclear weapons program.

In response to the proposed U.N. sanctions and ongoing Seoul-Washington joint military drills, the North's military threatened to scrap the Korean War cease-fire. 

Kim Yong-chol, a hard-line North Korean general suspected of involvement in a series of provocations against the South, read the statement on state TV, saying the North "will completely declare invalid" the Armistice Agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The North also said it will cut off a military phone line at the truce village of Panmunjom. 

South Korea's military responded to the North's bellicose threats with a verbal salvo, warning it would strike back at the North and destroy its "command leadership," if provoked by Pyongyang. (Yonhap News)