N. Korea to face huge losses from U.N. sanctions: report

SEOUL, June 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's moribund economy will face big losses if
the United Nations Security Council approves and enforces tougher sanctions
against the country for its nuclear defiance, a private report said Thursday.
Hyundai Economic Research Institute, a Seoul-based research center, predicted
that North Korea will lose US$1.5-3.7 billion if the U.N. enforces the sanctions.
Hyundai said it calculated the loss estimates based on the losses North Korea
reportedly incurred between 2005 and 2007, when financial sanctions against
Pyongyang were imposed.
North Korea detonated a new nuclear device on May 25, prompting the Security
Council to start work on stronger punitive sanctions against the recalcitrant
communist regime.
In New York, global powers, including North Korea's traditional ally China,
agreed on a draft U.N. resolution that would curb loans and money transfers to
the North. The proposal still needs to be approved by the Security Council.
The research center warned tensions on the Korean Peninsula will be heightened
further if the United States and Japan strictly enforces the new sanctions.
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