The enforcement problem in Resolution 2094 and the United Nations Security Council sanctions regime: sanctioning North Korea

ABSTRACT

This article deconstructs United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2094 through the preambulatory statements, objectives, obligations, and implementation and enforcement provisions of UNSC Resolution 2094. The article proceeds in three parts. First, it reviews the academic literature on UNSC sanctions and their application in the North Korean case. Second, it deconstructs UNSC Resolution 2094 according to the common structural components of international legal instruments to assess the level of congruence between the objectives of UNSC Resolution 2094, its enforcement mechanisms and outcomes. Third, it explores the weaknesses of UNSC Resolution 2094, focusing on the gap between the objectives and enforcement mechanisms found in the resolution. The inability of the UNSC sanctions regime to prevent North Korea reaching the cusp of becoming a nuclear weapons power is evidence of the international community's weak leverage over Pyongyang, a situation arising from the vulnerability of South Korea to a North Korean attack and the cross-cutting strategic priorities of China; the absence of economic linkages between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the primary sanctions-sender state in the USA; and North Korea's commitment to a nuclear weapons capability as the foundation of its medium-term economic development strategy, its institutional governance structure and associated ideological commitments.

KEYWORDS:

• economic sanctions
• nuclear weapons proliferation
• United Nations Security Council

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Michael O'Keefe, Claudia Astarita, Jasmine Westendorf and Kumuda Simpson for their assistance with the preparation of this article.

Notes

1. In this article, UNSC resolutions are referred to by their legal nomenclature—for example, S/RES/2094 (2013).