video transcript

As tension builds on the Korean peninsula, many South Koreans are worried. Their neighbour North Korea has stepped up threats against them and the United States, prompting the United Nations to impose new sanctions aimed at curtailing the rogue state's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. But many are sceptical about the UN resolution - like these anti-war activists outside the U.S. embassy in the South Korean capital, Seoul. (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) PROTEST LEADER, YOU YOUNG-JAE SAYING: "The UN resolution of sanctions against North Korea will make the situation worse, not resolve the problem for a peaceful peninsula, so we are decisively against the resolution." North Korea has accused the U.S. of using military drills in South Korea as a launch pad for a nuclear war. And Pyongyang has threatened to scrap an armistice that ended hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War if the drills continue. In Tokyo, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed the resolution and called on all the countries involved to do what was necessary. The new UN measures will tighten financial restrictions on North Korea and crack down on its attempts to ship and receive banned cargo.