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<p>There is an international effort to maximise pressure on the DPRK to change direction
from its current unacceptable course. Sanctions play a crucial role in this strategy.
UN Security Council Resolution 2270 (March 2016) introduced broader economic sanctions
on the DPRK that aim to restrict major sources of revenue used by the DPRK regime
to fund its illegal weapons programmes. UNSCRs 2371 (August 2017) and 2375 (September
2017) expanded these sanctions to include sectoral restrictions on the DPRK’s trade
in coal, iron, lead, textiles, crude and refined oil, and overseas workers. It has
been less than three months since the UN Security Council agreed to the full coal
ban, which marked the first sector-wide ban on exports from the DPRK. The first UN
Panel of Experts report on implementation of those sanctions will be released in January,
with member state implementation reports due on 3 November. Sanctions take time to
have effect, but there are early indications of their impact. The Chinese Central
Bank has instructed all Chinese banks to comply with UN resolutions, and Chinese businesses
were recently given 120 days to divest themselves of joint ventures with DPRK companies.
Other countries are also playing their part, for example by restricting visas for
DPRK overseas workers or prohibiting all trade with the DPRK. The EU has introduced
a raft of measures that go beyond the UN-mandated sanctions, such as an oil ban and
reducing the ceiling on hard currency remittances to the DPRK by two-thirds.</p>
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