The U.N. Security Council condemned North Korea's latest nuclear test on Monday but there may be little left the international community can do to punish the poor and isolated state.
North Korea's neighbours South Korea and China are worried about moves that would severely destabilise the leadership in Pyongyang, which could lead to chaos on their borders and a bill estimated at more than $1 trillion for the South to absorb the North in the event of re-unification.
China and South Korea are the biggest trade partners with North Korea, whose annual GDP is estimated at $20 billion, less than 3 percent the size of the South's economy.
PUNISHMENT OPTIONS
* New U.N. trade sanctions.
* China, the North's biggest benefactor, could more tightly enforce existing U.N. sanctions put in place in 2006 after missile launches and the first nuclear test. This may have a limited effect on curbing trade, with Beijing seen unwilling to curb flows of energy and food aid to the North that help prop up its economy. Beijing is also reluctant to accept any new sanctions that would significantly undercut its economic ties or lead to instability in its neighbour.
* The U.S. could place North Korea back on its terrorism blacklist, a difficult bureaucratic process for Washington that would hurt the North's ability to tap into international finance. The United States could consider its own trade and financial measures.
* South Korea could pull out of a joint factory park with the North, a costly and politically risky move for Seoul which has obligations to its companies operating there. But this would cut off a source of foreign currency for the government in Pyongyang, which is paid the salaries for the North Korean factory workers.
* New unilateral sanctions by Japan, although the impact would be small given the limited contact between the two countries.
SANCTIONS ALREADY IN PLACE:
* U.N. Security Council resolution 1718 of October 2006 imposes arms and financial sanctions on North Korea after it conducted its first nuclear test three months after test-firing its longest-range Taepodong-2 ballistic missile. This also bans the sale of luxury goods to the North.
* A Security Council statement on April 13, adopted after the North's launch of a multi-stage rocket, called for tough enforcement of the sanctions under resolution 1718.
* U.N. Security Council resolution 1695 of July 2006 after the North's launch of its Taepodong-2 bans trading of material, technology and financial resources that could be used in the North's weapons of mass destruction programmes.
* U.S. Treasury Department regulations ban transactions by U.S. firms with some North Korean entities and transactions involving North Korean vessels. Imports of goods made in the North also require prior approval.
* Japan has in place a ban on imports of North Korean goods and also prohibits port calls by North Korean vessels. As part of the Security Council ban on trading in luxury goods, Japan prohibits the sale of beef, caviar and fatty tuna, along with expensive cars, motorcycles and cameras.
* The movement of goods and equipment from South Korea, with which the North has a sizable trading relationship, is severely limited under a 1996 multinational arrangement that controls the transfer of dual-use goods that could be used by the receiving country for military purposes.
(Source: the United Nations, U.S. State and Treasury Departments, South Korean Foreign Ministry, Reuters)
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