China and Russia on Thursday vetoed a United States-sponsored United Nations resolution that would have imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea for intercontinental ballistic missile launches that could be used to deliver nuclear weapons.
The vote was 13-2 in the 15-member Security Council and marked the first serious split between the five veto-holding permanent members of the UN’s most powerful body over North Korea’s sanctions proposal.
A joint Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them in a total of 10 resolutions – so far unsuccessfully – to rein in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and cut funding.
But China and Russia told the Security Council after the vote that they oppose more sanctions, stressing that renewed talks between North Korea and the United States are now needed.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield expressed dismay, but was not surprised at the vote, saying North Korea’s launch of 23 ballistic missiles this year, including six ICBMs after a five-year suspension, was “a nod to international peace and security.” grave danger.”
“The world is facing a clear and present threat from the DPRK,” she said, using the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and citing the continued search for weapons of mass destruction.
In the final sanctions resolution adopted by the council in December 2017, members committed to further restrict petroleum exports to North Korea if it launched a ballistic missile capable of reaching intercontinental borders.
Prior to the vote, Thomas-Greenfield urged the council to fulfill its commitment and take action against the North’s ICBM launches and its growing nuclear program.
China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun blamed the United States for not responding to North Korea’s “positive initiatives” during talks with the Trump administration in 2018 and 2019.
He said it is now the responsibility of the US to resume its talks with Pyongyang and find a political solution to the situation on the Korean peninsula, where the 1950-53 war between North Korea and South Korea was not accompanied by a peace treaty but a ceasefire. had stopped from
“The situation and the peninsula has evolved to what it is today, largely thanks to the flip-flop of US policies and the failure to keep up with the results of previous dialogues,” he said.
Faced with “persistent tensions” on the Korean peninsula, Zhang said, “China has been calling on all sides to exercise calm and restraint and to refrain from actions that could escalate tensions and lead to miscalculations.” He said that North Korea is facing the harshest sanctions and instead of imposing new sanctions, China and Russia have proposed lifting some sanctions to improve the dire humanitarian condition of North Korean people.
Earlier, Zhang referred to the US as “Asia’s pivot” as an aim to counter China’s rise as an economic and military power and America’s most important competitor.
“We do not want anyone to use the DPRK’s position or the situation on the Korean Peninsula as a card for our strategic or geopolitical agenda,” he said. “We are against any attempt to make Northeast Asia a battlefield or create conflict or tension there.”
Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzia said that Moscow had repeatedly told the US that the new sanctions against the DPRK were “a road to a dead end” and that they saw the “ineffectiveness and inhumanity of further strengthening sanctions pressure on Pyongyang”. ” was also emphasized.
“The problems of security in the region, which also directly affect Russia, cannot be solved through primitive and blunt means that have a direct impact on the population,” he said. “Over the past year, we have only been seeing a worsening of the situation on the (Korean) peninsula.”
Nebenzia said Western countries have placed the blame on North Korean officials, while completely ignoring Pyongyang’s repeated appeals to the United States to “stop its hostile activity that opened the way for talks.” will give.”
UN envoy Thomas-Greenfield counterattacked that it is Security Council inaction that is “certainly enabling” North Korea’s own weapons programs. And he responded that the United States has made “serious, sustained efforts, both publicly and privately, to pursue diplomacy with the DPRK without preconditions.”
US and British envoys also expressed concern that North Korea would resume nuclear tests.
Britain’s deputy ambassador, James Kariucci, warned that two members seeking to keep the council silent would only encourage North Korea.
Standing with the ambassadors of Japan and South Korea after the meeting, Thomas-Greenfield read a joint statement calling the veto “dangerous” and saying they not only undermine previous Security Council resolutions for which Russia and China have committed, rather, “our collective security”. ,
The three countries vowed not to remain silent and resolved to work together to protect the region and the world from “the continued and unprovoked escalation of the DPRK.”
The vote on Wednesday was announced hours after North Korea’s latest launch and aimed at bolstering the US axis following Tuesday’s conclusion of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Asia. This included stops in South Korea and Japan, where he reaffirmed America’s commitment to defending both allies in the face of a nuclear threat from the North.
Wednesday’s launch was the 17th round of DPRK missile firing this year. Experts have said North Korea wants to move to expand its arsenal and put more pressure on its rivals to secure sanctions relief and other concessions.
The proposal on Thursday would cut crude oil exports to North Korea from 4 million barrels per year to 3 million barrels and refined petroleum products exports from 500,000 barrels per year to 375,000 barrels. It would also have banned the export of mineral fuels, mineral oil, mineral wax to the north. Watches, watches and their parts.
The defeated resolution would also have imposed a global asset freeze on one person and three companies, including North Korea’s Lazarus Group, that allegedly fought against government, military, financial, manufacturing, publishing “cyber espionage, data theft, monetary theft and destructive malware.” “operations”. Media and entertainment institutions as well as shipping companies and critical infrastructure.
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