P.M. Tuilaepa backs Forum’s condemnation of North Korea

14 September 2017, 12:00AM

The Chairman of the Pacific Island Forum Meeting and Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi says the decision by the Forum to condemn and de-register all North Korean fishing and training boats from the Pacific is one of the “most powerful” decisions made by the Forum.

At the conclusion of its 48th annual meeting in Apia last week, the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders were unified in endorsing the deregistration of any North Korean trading or fishing vessels currently flagged on Pacific states’ shipping registers.

“The decision is a bold and meaningful response to North Koreans testing of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and the threat posed to Guam, which constitutes a threat to the wider Pacific Islands region,” Tuilaepa reiterated the Forum Leaders endorsement.

“The impact of the decision on North Korea’s fishing industry is in the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues and jobs,” the Prime Minister told the Taimi ma le Palemia weekly television program with TV1.

In standing up and condemning the nuclear testing, the Prime Minister says that the P.I.F’s has joined the world powers such the United States, Japan, France, China and Russia to stand together condemning North Korea.

To that effect, to monitor the Pacific Oceans and remove North Korean trading and fishing boats will be enforced by New Zealand and Australia with assistance from the United States and other world powers with the resources.

On the world front the United Nations has imposed new sanctions on North Korea after its sixth and largest nuclear test. 

With backing from China and Russia, the council voted 15-0 to slap a ban on textile exports and restrict shipments of oil products to North Korea.

 The new additional sanctions target very important parts of the North Korean economy. There will be a complete ban on the export of all North Korean textiles - that’s worth about $950 million a year to the regime.

The amount of oil that North Korea can import will be reduced by a third.

There will also be a prohibition on the importation of natural gas.

All joint ventures with North Korean individuals and entities are banned.

No North Korean worker will be permitted to work overseas once their current contracts are completed.

And no new work visas will be issued.

Like the Pacific Island Forum Leaders, the United Nation’s sanctions will deny the North Korean regime hundreds of billions of dollars that it has been channeling to fund its illegal programmes.

14 September 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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