MOSCOW. Oct 17. (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree imposing a number of restrictions on North Korea in response to missile and nuclear tests it has conducted.
The president signed the decree, which was published on the official legal information portal, following the adoption of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2321 of November 30, 2016.
The October 14 decree has come into effect on the date of its signing.
A number of annexes supplement the decree, such as the list of individuals and legal entities, currently or previously working on implementing North Korea's nuclear program or ballistic missile program, which are subjected to restrictions described in the decree. The list includes high-ranking officials, North Korean banks, a number of commercial companies and corporations.
Another annex to the decree is the list of goods, items, materials, equipment, and technologies, supplies of which from Russia to North Korea are prohibited.
The lists are several dozen pages long.
A separate annex to the decree is the list of luxury goods, transit of which, including by air transport, through Russia, export from Russia to the DPRK and handover to North Korea outside the borders of Russia, via naval and airborne vehicles, are prohibited beginning on November 30, 2016, until further notice.
This list includes two items: carpets and tapestries worth over $500, and porcelain and bone china wares worth over $100.
In accordance to the endorsed resolution, additional international sanctions, which restrict cooperation with North Korea in military-technical, trade and economic, financial, transport, and educational areas, are being imposed in order to suppress the development and the provision of resources for prohibited North Korean programs.
Furthermore, targeted restrictions imposed on a number of North Korean individuals and legal entities, as well as the lists of goods, including 'luxury items', the import and export of which to and from North Korea is prohibited, are being extended.
The explanatory note to the draft decree stipulated that measures envisaged by the UN Security Council Resolution 2321 impose additional bans on trade and economic, banking and financial, and scientific-technical cooperation with the DPRK.
Purchases of copper, nickel, silver, and zinc from North Korea are prohibited in the trade and economic field. At the same time, an exception, which was made for the Russian Railways Russian coal transit project carried out via the North Korean port of Rajin for subsequent shipment to third countries under UN Security Council Resolution 2270 of March 2, 2016, remains in effect.
Additional restrictions are imposed on cooperation in the transport sector: supplies of new helicopters and naval vessels to North Korea are prohibited; state registration should be revoked on all naval vessels which are owned by or under control of North Korea; the measures for checking North Korean aircraft and naval vessels in UN member countries are being tightened.
The explanatory note stipulated that in the banking and financial sector, UN member countries are instructed to close all representative offices of their banks in North Korea within 90 days of the resolution being endorsed. Individuals and organizations are prohibited from funding trade with North Korea via state and private channels.
Scientific-technical cooperation involving individuals or groups officially representing North Korea, except for exchanges in the medical area, should be suspended, if these facilitate the development of prohibited North Korean programs; the list of vocations, in which the education of North Korean citizens in the UN member countries is prohibited, is being extended.
Furthermore, the lists of dual-purpose goods and other items, whose import into North Korea is prohibited on the grounds of their potential use for the country's nuclear and missile programs and other actions breaching the North Korean sanctions regime, have been expanded. New individuals and legal entities are being added to the list of targeted restrictions (travel bans, asset freezes).
The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier that UN Security Council Resolution 2321 on new sanctions against North Korea should not be interpreted loosely and at the same time should send a signal to Pyongyang regarding the need to reinstate the non-proliferation regime.