U.N. Security Council unanimously adopts harshest-ever sanctions on North Korea

NEW YORK, March 2 (Yonhap) -- The U.N. Security Council adopted the harshest-ever sanctions on North Korea on Wednesday, punishing Pyongyang for its defiant nuclear and missile tests and seeking to put curbs on the weapons programs.

The 15-member council unanimously adopted the resolution, significantly tightening the screws on the communist nation that sparked global outrage with its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and its long-range missile launch on Feb. 7 in violation of U.N. bans.

The new sanctions, the toughest ever to be imposed on Pyongyang, require mandatory inspection of all cargo going in and out of the North, regardless of whether by land, sea or air, while banning its exports of coal, iron and other mineral resources, a key source of hard currency that accounts for nearly half of the country's total exports.

It also prohibits all small arms and other conventional weapons from being sold to the North, bans jet and rocket fuel supplies to the country, grounds North Korean flights suspected of carrying contraband and denies suspicious vessels carrying illicit items access to ports.

It is the fifth Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on the North.

The previous resolutions were adopted after the North's first nuclear test in 2006, its second nuclear test in 2009, its long-range rocket launch in late 2012 and its third nuclear test in early 2013.
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