Washington
\nChina and Russia on Thursday vetoed a US-led bid at the United Nations to toughen sanctions on North Korea over its missile launches, laying bare divisions that Western envoys fear would be exploited by Pyongyang.
\nThe Security Council resolution put forward by the United States would have reduced the amount of oil North Korea could legally import as punishment for a test Wednesday of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
\nThe resolution enjoyed the support of the 13 other members of the Security Council, although some US allies quietly wondered whether Washington should have gone ahead with the vote knowing the unflinching opposition from Beijing and Moscow.
\nChina, the closest ally of North Korea, and Russia, whose relations with the West have sunk over its invasion of Ukraine, said they would have preferred a non-binding statement rather than a fresh resolution with teeth against Pyongyang.
\nThe United States \u201cshould not place one-sided emphasis on the implementation of sanctions alone. It should also work to promote a political solution,\u201d said China\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun.
\nHe warned that sanctions would cause an \u201cescalation\u201d and humanitarian consequences for North Korea, one of the world\u2019s most closed societies, which recently announced a Covid outbreak.
\nZhang alleged that the United States wanted the resolution to fail so as to \u201cspread the flames of war\u201d as part of its wider effort to pressure China.
\n\u201cThe crux of the matter,\u201d he said, \u201cis whether they want to use the handling of the Korean peninsula issue on the chessboard of their so-called Indo-Pacific strategy.\u201d
\nRussia\u2019s ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the United States of ignoring North Korea\u2019s appeals to stop \u201chostile activity.\u201d
\n\u201cIt seems that our American and other Western colleagues are suffering from the equivalent of writer\u2019s block. They seem to have no response to crisis situations other than introducing new sanctions,\u201d he said.
\nPresident Joe Biden\u2019s administration has repeatedly said it is willing to speak with North Korea without preconditions.
\nIt has found little interest in working-level talks from North Korea, whose leader Kim Jong Un held three high-profile meetings with Biden\u2019s predecessor Donald Trump.
\nIn 2017, before Trump\u2019s outreach to Kim, the UN Security Council voted unanimously three times to tighten pressure on North Korea, with China and Russia also exasperated by nuclear and ICBM launches.
\nWhile still offering talks, the United States said that North Korea had clearly violated a 2017 resolution that called for further consequences if Pyongyang fires another ICBM.
\nThe United States and South Korea say that the North fired three missiles on Wednesday, including what may have been its largest ICBM, hours after Biden visited the region.
\nThe missile launches \u2013 23 in total this year \u2013 pose a \u201cthreat to the peace and security of the entire international community,\u201d said the US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
\n\u201cCouncil restraint and silence have not eliminated or even reduced the threat. If anything, DPRK has been emboldened by this Council\u2019s inaction,\u201d she said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea.
\nShe said the United States would pursue unilateral action against North Korea including additional sanctions.
\nBritish, French and South Korean envoys voiced fear that North Korea would go ahead with a nuclear test, which would be its first since 2017.
\n\u201cUsing a veto protects the North Korean regime and gives it carte blanche to launch more weapons,\u201d said the French ambassador, Nicolas de Riviere.
\nThe US-drafted resolution would have reduced the amount of oil that North Korea can legally import each year for civilian purposes from four million to three million barrels (525,000 to 393,750 tons) and similarly cut the level of refined petroleum.
\nOne ambassador at the United Nations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States went ahead in the last days of its May presidency of the Security Council despite knowing the Chinese and Russian opposition, believing inaction was worse.
\n\u201cTheir calculation,\u201d the ambassador said, was \u201cwe cannot just allow this constant testing carried out without a reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington China and Russia on Thursday vetoed a US-led bid at the United Nations to toughen sanctions on North Korea over its missile launches, laying bare divisions that Western envoys fear would be exploited by Pyongyang. The Security Council resolution put forward by the United States would have reduced the amount of oil North Korea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[18,3942,338,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-263124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-north-korea","10":"tag-russia","11":"tag-un"},"yoast_head":"\n