AKIPRESS.COM - Nearly 1,200 North Koreans living in Mongolia must now pack their bags as Mongolia enforces tough United Nations sanctions severely curbing trade with Pyongyang, AP reports.

The UN estimated in September that 100,000 North Koreans work abroad and send some $500 million in wages back to the authoritarian regime each year.

But the UN Security Council ordered nations to stop providing guest worker permits to North Koreans after Pyongyang detonated its most powerful nuclear bomb.

The US is now pushing for more sanctions after the regime tested another intercontinental ballistic missile in late November.

North Koreans have to leave Mongolia by the end of the year as their one-year work authorisations will not be renewed, the labour ministry said.

There were 1,190 North Koreans employed in the vast country of 3mn people as of November — often under murky work and living conditions.