EU Council expands sanctions against North Korea

The European Union expanded its sanctions on North Korea as the back and forth between the US and Pyongyang escalated.

Asset freezes and travel bans have been increased steadily as the nation has repeatedly violated United Nations resolutions on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

After intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests of missiles capable of reaching the US mainland were carried out by North Korea last week, the UN imposed its "most stringent" restrictions so far with the intention of cutting nearly $1bn out of the country's export revenue.

In accordance with the UN resolution, the EU Council said in a statement released Thursday that it had added a further nine individuals, including the state-owned Foreign Trade Bank (FTB) to its sanctions list, taking the total number of blacklisted individuals to 103, plus 57 entities.

"This resolution was adopted on 5 August 2017 in response to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s ongoing nuclear-weapon and ballistic missile-development activities, in violation and flagrant disregard of previous UN Security Council resolutions," the statement noted.

The DPRK's actions, which the statement says "gave threat to international peace and security," will block transactions in coal, iron and iron ore, ban imports of copper, nickel, silver and zinc from North Korea, as well as suspend scientific and technical cooperation and even slow the flow of earnings made by the country's citizens while abroad being sent home.