NORTH KOREA - Unanimous UN Vote for Imposing New Sanctions

"As UN Levels New Sanctions, Pyongyang Threatens Preemptive Nuclear Attack" PBS Newshour 3/7/2013

Excerpt

RAY SUAREZ (Newshour):  It took less than three minutes for the U.N. Security Council to agree on its fourth round of sanctions against North Korea.  The vote was unanimous, imposing new financial curbs.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice:

UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR SUSAN RICE, United Nations:  Taken together, these sanctions will bite, and bite hard.  They increase North Korea's isolation and raise the cost to North Korea's leaders of defying the international community.

RAY SUAREZ:  The sanctions aim to make it more difficult for North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, to finance his nuclear and missile program.  In December, the North successfully fired a long-range rocket, saying it was designed to orbit a satellite.

And last month, North Koreans cheered scientists who carried out the country's third nuclear test.  That event directly provoked today's U.N. action.  North Korea's closest ally, China, even helped draft the sanctions.

CHINESE AMBASSADOR LI BAODONG, United Nations:  We want to see full implementation of the resolution.  The top priority now is to defuse the tension, bring down the heat.