UN Security Council Resolutions on North Korea

The United Nations Security Council has adopted five major resolutions since 2006 that impose and strengthen sanctions on North Korea for continuing to develop its nuclear weapons program and call on Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear program “in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner" and refrain from ballistic missile tests. The first two resolutions were passed shortly after North Korean nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The third came a month after North Korea successfully launched a satellite in December 2012. North Korea is prohibited from such launches under previous UN Security Council Resolutions because the technology in a satellite launch vehicle has potential dual use applications to ballistic missile development. The fourth was passed after North Korea’s most recent nuclear test in February 2013. The most recent was adopted in March 2016 after a nuclear test and satellite launch early in the year. The resolutions since 2009 furnished UN member states with interdiction authority, calling upon states to inspect North Korean cargo within their territory, and subsequently seize and dispose of goods prohibited by UNSC Resolutions.

To this date, UN Security Council resolutions have been largely unsuccessful in preventing North Korea from advancing its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, although the sanctions have slowed development in these areas.

[Resolution 1718 was unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council on Oct, 14, 2006, in the wake of North Korea’s Oct. 9, 2006 nuclear test, prohibiting North Korea from conducting future nuclear tests or launching a ballistic missile. It called for the country to suspend its ballistic missile program and to completely abandon efforts to pursue a nuclear weapon. The resolution included a range of sanctions designed to prevent North Korea from continuing to develop these programs.]

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