The new sanctions introduced against North Korea by the recent United Nation (UN) resolution are unlikely to change country’s provocative behavior and deter the isolated state from carrying out further nuclear and military tests, experts told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution in response to North Korea's fourth nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch in early February, in breach of the existing Security Council resolutions.

The fresh UN list of sanctions includes an export ban on jet fuel to North Korea and restrictions on the import of minerals and mandated all UN member states to inspect any cargo bound for or originating from North Korea that passes through their territory.

“Just like the last time, the sanctions will be paper sanctions for a large part,” chair of Korean Studies at Leiden University Remco Breuker told Sputnik, adding that sanctions would never lead to a revival of six-party talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as some countries, namely China and Russia, hoped. “And even if the sanctions are felt in Pyongyang, the six-party talks are dead,” the expert asserted.

The effectiveness of sanctions depends partially on whether China, North Korea’s main ally and Pyongyang’s biggest economic partner, will execute the sanctions. “I have a suspicion it won't,” Breuker warned.

In the past, Beijing was reluctant to impose stricter sanctions on its neighbor. This time around, China and Russia requested that the UN resolution be slightly softened out of fear that overly stringent measures would threaten the stability of the Korean Peninsula.

On the other hand, China is thought to be becoming more and more irritated with its neighbor's behavior. As senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation Bennett Bruce noted, in the last three years, China has held six summit meetings with South Korea while no such meeting has been held with North Korea, despite Kim Jong Un’s apparent attempt last fall to organize a summit meeting with China. This, the expert noted, suggests that “in China's view, North Korea is an insignificant state and that Kim Jong Un is a weak leader”.

According to experts, all nuclear tests, missile launches and other provocative acts are primarily carried out for the domestic public, to prove that Kim Jong Un is still a powerful leader.

“It [North Korea] needs a situation that is always filled with tension: not so much it will bring war, but also not so little change and reform can actually occur. So, provocations are in fact, nothing else but instruments to calibrate the level of tension and maintain it at the desired level,” Breuker said.

Just hours after the announcement of new UN sanctions on Thursday, Pyongyang fired several projectiles into the sea up to 150 kilometers off its coast. On Friday, North's official KCNA news agency circulated Kim’s order to the military to be ready to use its nuclear weapons at any time in the face of growing threats from its enemies.

“After the United Nations passed the most recent UN Security Council Resolution, Kim acted like a petulant child that has just been disciplined by his parents for his wrong-doings,” Bruce commented on Kim's reaction.

Both experts believe that in the short-term, nothing would deter North Koreans from further nuclear development. Moreover, new provocations may be expected prior to the convention of the Workers Party, the first convention in 36 years, scheduled for early May.

“In particular, since the fourth nuclear test in January was unsuccessful, he [Kim Jong Un] may attempt another nuclear test if he really does have [an] available nuclear weapon which has a chance of functioning properly (producing a much larger explosion)," Bennett suggested.

North Korea has previously warned that the imposition of sanctions would not result in the country's collapse or prevent it from launching more rockets.

The views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.