PHL complies with UN economic sanctions vs. North Korea

The Philippines on Friday said it has complied with a United Nations resolution that imposes tougher economic sanctions against North Korea for defying international calls to abandon its nuclear program and for its continued ballistic missile testing.

Manila is the fifth largest exporter to North Korea and 60 percent of its exports are integrated circuit boards and computers, which may be used by Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile tests.

“The UN Security Council is quite clear. Part of these are the economic sanctions and the Philippines will comply,” Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters Friday.

He said the Department of Foreign Affairs received the instruction from Malacanang to support UN Security Council resolutions against Pyongyang.

Cayetano did not say what specific products it will stop exporting to North Korea, but said the sanction is “immediate.”

“We are one with the world in wanting denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula. We are against anything that causes instability, we are against provocation, we are for dialogue,” Cayetano noted.

North Korea’s missile tests drew strong condemnations and grave concerns from the international community, particularly the United States, saying Pyongyang’s missiles pose a great risk due to its capability to strike the US mainland.

Amid North Korea’s continued defiance to international calls to stop its intercontinental ballistic missiles testing and violations of UN resolutions, the world body imposed fresh sanctions last month against the reclusive Asian state by banning its key exports.

Last week, Pyongyang tested a hydrogen bomb at its Punggyre-ri nuclear test site. The detonation came a few days after North Korea launched a ballistic missile that flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, prompting Tokyo to issue a missile launch warning to its citizens.

Instability in the Korean Peninsula has long worried the Philippines due to the large presence of Filipino workers in SouthKorea, numbering to at least 57,000.

An escalation of conflict is also seen to affect at about 242,000 Filipinos in Japan. —JST, GMA News