UNITED NATIONS - Citing threats to not only Northeast Asia but the whole world, members of the UN Security Council on Monday ratcheted up, yet again, sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for its most recent nuclear test.
The new sanctions severely restrict oil imports, and ban all its textile exports worth 800 million U.S. dollars and remittances of some 93,000 DPRK laborers from abroad.
Speaking after a unanimous vote on the resolution that passed the sanctions, several ambassadors said the severity of the sanctions was designed not so much as to hurt the DPRK but help it see negotiations are only way out of the Korean Peninsula nuclear crisis.
"The situation on the Korean Peninsula remains complex and grave. All relevant parties must be cool-headed and avoid rhetoric or action that might aggravate tension," Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi said.
He urged the DPRK to heed the aspirations and will of the international community, abide by relevant Security Council resolutions, refrain from any more missile launches or nuclear tests, and return to the track of denuclearization.

Liu said Monday's resolution also reiterated the maintenance of peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia and the peaceful settlement of the issue, the resumption of the six-party talks involving China, DPRK, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, and the importance of de-escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula. (Xinhua)