UNITED NATIONS—While the U.N. Security Council considers new sanctions on North Korea after its latest nuclear test, experts say existing sanctions are going unenforced.
Despite the mounting international concern over North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, less than 40 of the U.N. 193 member states have turned in reports on sanctions implementation since the latest round of sanctions was imposed in 2013. Compliance has been lowest in Africa, an increasingly important market for low-cost North Korean weapons sales.
Perhaps more disturbingly, the most recent annual report published by the U.N. panel of experts on North Korea found no new instances of member states’ seizure or inspection of prohibited items, although its investigations showed that the North “continues to attempt to procure or transfer items” for its nuclear and missile programs.
Since North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006, the Security Council has approved four sanctions resolutions that prohibit North Korea from possessing and trafficking weapons of mass destruction, importing luxury goods and trading in arms. That’s made it trickier for the North to get hard currency to fund its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
But the measures have failed to check the North’s progress. While Pyongyang’s claim to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb Wednesday was greeted with skepticism, experts say it is likely making progress on miniaturizing a nuclear weapon and could have enough fissile material for dozens of bombs by 2020.
As expected, the Security Council, the U.N.’s most powerful body, has strongly condemned the latest test and pledged to swiftly push for “further significant measures.” U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said the council should hold North Korea accountable by imposing tough new restrictions, “and by ensuring rigorous enforcement of the resolutions it has already adopted.”
