UN hits North Korea with new sanctions

The United Nations Security Council has imposed new sanctions on North Korea in an effort at cutting the country's annual export revenue by a quarter as punishment for conducting a nuclear test in September.

The UN 15-member council on Wednesday unanimously adopted a drafted resolution to cut North Korea's biggest export, coal, by about 60 per cent with an annual sales cap of $US400.9 million.

The council also bans North Korean copper, nickel, silver and zinc exports, sale of statues and other raw materials.

The ban could reduce North Korea’s export revenue by as much as a quarter if fully implemented, diplomats said.

The new sanctions comes after Pyongyang's fifth and largest nuclear test in September and a series of missile launches that it carried out in recent months in violation of U.N. resolutions.

North Korea's neighbor, South Korea, with which the North remains technically at war, welcome the new sanctions.

“The government strongly welcomes that the resolution was unanimously adopted, with the backing of China and Russia, in response to the North’s fifth nuclear test,” South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Pyongyang is famous for building huge, socialist-style statues, which it exports mainly to African countries.

Speaking to the council after the vote, US UN ambassador, Samantha Power, who was realistic about what the new sanctions would achieve, said;

"No resolution in New York will likely, tomorrow, persuade Pyongyang to cease its relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons. But this resolution imposes unprecedented costs on the DPRK regime for defying this council's demands," she said.