Obama OKs new sanctions against NKorea over nuclear program

The bill, which aims to cut the last remaining lifelines to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile technology, will blacklist third-party individuals and entities that engage in North Korea trade.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, at a meeting with South Korea’s foreign minister on February 9, had expressed his deep concern about the negative impact of the DPRK’s recent acts on regional stability and wider disarmament and non-proliferation objectives. “We expect it to provide a platform for the U.S. to take strong and effective measures (against North Korea)”, the ministry said.

On Sunday, it defiantly launched a satellite-bearing rocket, a move the West sees as a cover for a ballistic missile test in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

Kim recalled the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 1972, which for a number of years contained the development of new missile defence systems.

The expanded sanctions are created to deny North Korea the money it needs to develop miniaturized nuclear warheads and the long-range missiles needed to deliver them.

The bill also allows for $50m (£35m) to support humanitarian programmes and transmit radio broadcasts into North Korea.

Russian Federation has again expressed opposition to countries imposing unilateral sanctions on North Korea.

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South Korean and USA officials say the THAAD battery is not aimed at targeting a third country, but China has claimed the U.S.missile shield would undermine its national security interests.

The South’s office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff later said there were several rounds of artillery fire, revising a comment by the ministry official that there had been a single shot, and there were no other unusual movements by the North’s military.

The radar-evading Raptor jets, accompanied by eight more planes from South Korea and the United States, flew to Osan Air Base near Pyeongtaek, 45 miles (70km) south from the border with North Korea.