UN hits N. Korea with tough new sanctions – but will they work?

– Loose enforcement? –

When it comes to North Korea, “so far, the impact of these and other sanctions in order to change the DPRK’s actions appears to be limited,” said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

“Moscow has an ambiguous position” on economic sanctions against North Korea, he said. Past resolutions “are strangling Russia’s economic cooperation” with the North and have hurt the corporate interests of powerful Russian players, he said in a recent analysis.

A top target of the sanctions adopted August 5 is the fish and crustacean industry — some 29 percent of North Korean exports from that sector are destined for Russia. And according to Chinese customs figures, Beijing imported $50 million in North Korean fish and shellfish in June alone.

Echoing the view of many experts, Thomas H. Lee, a law professor at Fordham University in New York, said enforcement of even preexisting sanctions has been loose.

But the latest set “will really hurt the North Korean leadership,” he predicted.

And if sanctions fail to change the regime’s behavior, the Security Council still has other options, such as an oil embargo or the return home of North Korean nationals working abroad.

A new report on the implementation of UN sanctions against North Korea is expected in September.