Australia welcomes UNSC’s further action on North Korea

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has welcomed new sanctions designed to punish the North Korean regime for testing a nuclear warhead in September which led to magnitude-5.3 seismic event off the coast of the peninsula.

Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop Source: AAP

The test came after a series of ballistic missile launches by the Kim Jong Un regime and has been condemned by the international community and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as reckless, provocative and dangerous.

North Korea confirmed the nuclear test and claimed it had achieved its goal of attaching a miniature nuclear warhead to a rocket, raising tension with the United States and South Korea.

In response, the United Nations (UN) Security Council has unanimously passed a new swathe of sanctions on the North Korean Government, as proposed by the United States and China.

The 17-page resolution intends to cut North Korean coal exports by a reported $700 million, denying the regime of one its few remaining sources of revenue.

Ms Bishop said the sanctions would also target illicit transporting and commercial activities used to generate revenue for the North Korean weapons program.