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US President Donald Trump after his post-summit press conference at the JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi on Feb. 28. (Park Jong-shik

As the US and North Korea offer contradictory explanations for why the much-hyped North Korea-US summit in Hanoi ended without an agreement, the North Koreans specifically mentioned the five sanctions resolutions recently adopted by the UN Security Council and said that they’d asked for relief from the aspects of those sanctions that harm the North’s public livelihood. When these sanctions are examined in detail, they are found to mostly concern restrictions on the supply of crude oil and refined oil products, sending workers to other countries and investment in North Korea.

During a press conference that was held at the Melia Hanoi, Kim Jong-un’s hotel, shortly after midnight on Friday, Mar. 1, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho rebutted US President Donald Trump’s claim that North Korea had asked for sanctions to be lifted in their entirety. “We only asked for relief from the five sanctions resolutions that the UN Security Council adopted between 2016 and 2017, and in particular the aspects of those sanctions that interfere with the civilian economy and the people’s livelihood,” Ri said.

The UN Security Council adopted a total of 11 sanctions resolutions against North Korea from Resolution No. 1695 in June 2006 to Resolution No. 2397 in Dec. 2017. Six of these resolutions were adopted in 2016 and 2017, beginning with Resolution No. 2270 in Mar. 2016. Since Resolution No. 2356, which was adopted in June 2017, added North Korean organizations and individuals to the sanctions list, it can be presumed that North Korea was asking for parts of the other five resolutions to be revoked.

North Korea’s reference to the “civilian economy” means the ordinary economy, in contradistinction to the military economy, but reports have not confirmed exactly which provisions North Korea wants relief from. That said, North Korean sanctions prior to 2016 generally imposed limits on military supplies and luxury goods. After North Korea’s fourth nuclear test and long-range missile launches in early 2016, the target of the sanctions shifted to the overall North Korean economy beginning with Resolution No. 2270, adopted in March 2016. Examining the sanctions that were added after 2016, therefore, can enable us to generally surmise what North Korea wants.

First of all, Resolution No. 2397, which was adopted in Dec. 2017, after North Korea launched its Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), limits North Korea’s supply of refined oil products to 500,000 barrels a year. Considering that previous resolutions capped this at 2 million barrels, this measure can be regarded as extremely tough. Furthermore, the supply of crude oil to North Korea was restricted to 4 million barrels a year. While there’s a fuzzy line between military and civilian applications of crude oil and refined oil products, the fact that they’re used to run thermal power plants, produce agricultural fertilizer and heat greenhouses gives North Korea cause to argue that they’re directly connected with the public livelihood and the civilian economy.

In its series of sanctions resolutions against North Korea, the UN Security Council has also limited or banned North Korea’s export of mineral resources, including coal and iron, and the employment of its workers in other countries. While North Korean hardliners have argued that the North has used the foreign currency acquired through exporting mineral resources and dispatching workers to develop nuclear weapons and missiles, other experts say that the North has used these funds to maintain the vitality of its civilian economy. There are numerous toll processing firms in places such as Dandong, in China’s Liaoning Province, that take advantage of North Korean labor. That’s why North Korea and China have claimed such sanctions affect the public livelihood.

Additionally, Resolution No. 2375, which passed the UN Security Council in Sept. 2017, contains a provision that bans the establishment of joint ventures with North Korean companies and orders existing joint ventures to close within 120 days. Given North Korea’s need to attract foreign funding, it may also have been referring to this provision. There was even speculation that North Korea made a specific request about this during its working-level negotiations with the US.

By Noh Hyun-woong, staff reporter

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