UAE stops issuing new visas for North Korean labourers
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates said Thursday it would stop issuing new visas to North Korean workers, becoming the latest Gulf country to limit Pyongyang’s ability to evade sanctions and raise money abroad amid tensions with the U.S.
A statement by the UAE Foreign Ministry did not address the hundreds of North Korean labourers already working in the Emirates. A call to the UAE’s Embassy in Washington was not immediately returned.
The statement said the UAE would pull its non-resident ambassador to North Korea as well as stop North Koreans from opening new businesses in the Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula that is a staunch U.S. ally.
The UAE “looks forward to a unified global front against North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program,” the statement read.