The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Friday issued a new resolution aimed at stifling North Korea’s fuel imports, food and machinery shipments abroad, and granting member states increased powers to interdict suspicious vessels.

The new measures will also compel member states to return all North Korean laborers working within their borders and their handlers within two years. 

Resolution 2397 will cut the North’s supplies of both refined fuel products and crude oil by 89 percent, a move which will affect both China and Russia, the DPRK’s long-standing energy patrons.

The new measures strengthen existing provisions on supplying oil to North