By Yi Whan-woo

The United Nations, the United States and the European Union are stepping up efforts to ban trade with North Korea.

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) blacklisted 27 ships, 21 companies and a businessman for helping North Korea evade sanctions.

The sanctions come at the request of the U.S. despite President Donald Trump's planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in May.

The UNSC's measure bans global port entry for 13 North Korean oil tankers and cargo vessels, and 12 other ships suspected of helping North Korea smuggle oil and banned commodities into the country.

Two other North Korean ships were slapped with a global assets freeze.

The 21 shipping and trading firms were also hit by an assets freeze. Twelve of them are North Korean, three are based in Hong Kong and two in China, while the others are registered in Singapore, Samoa, the Marshall Islands and Panama.

A businessman named Tsang Yung Yuan was blacklisted for helping illegal shipments of North Korean coal.

In 2017, the UNSC adopted four sanctions resolutions aimed at putting pressure on the North Korean economy in retaliation for Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Friday's designations were the largest yet against the Kim regime.

Meanwhile, the European Union's trade volume with North Korea dropped 26.7 percent from 2016 to 17.73 million euros last year, according to data released Friday by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office.

The EU exported goods worth 12.64 million euros to the North and imported goods worth 5.09 million euros.

The figures represented drops of 32 percent and 9.3 percent year-on-year, respectively.
Germany, among the EU member nations, was the biggest exporter to the North with 3.86 million euros, followed by Denmark (1.96 million euros) and France (1.77 million euros).

The Netherlands was the largest importer with 2.56 million euros, followed by Austria (824,000 euros) and Spain ( 458,000 euros).