China and Russia veto new UN sanctions on North Korea

Asia-Pacific, News, US May 27, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted United Nations resolution on May 26 to impose tough new sanctions on North Korea for its spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches this year.

The remaining 13 council members all voted in favor of the resolution that proposed banning tobacco and oil exports to North Korea. It would also have blacklisted the Lazarus hacking group, which the U.S. says is tied to North Korea.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield expressed disappointment at the vote, calling North Korea’s 23 ballistic missile launches this year “a grave threat to international peace and security.”

“For the first time in 15 years, a UN Security Council member has used a veto to stop the council from fulfilling its responsibility to hold the DPRK (North Korea) accountable for its unlawful proliferation and tests,” the US envoy said in a statement made on behalf of the U.S., Japan, and South Korea.

She said that “These tests are dangerous. They are destabilizing. They are a clear violation of multiple Security Council resolutions and seek to undermine the global nonproliferation regime…The failure to adopt a new resolution undermines the Security Council’s previous actions to which they’ve agreed unanimously, and will only embolden the DPRK to conduct further provocations.”

With the veto, the Security Council missed the opportunity “to restrict the DPRK’s unlawful WMD and ballistic missile advancements while also helping to improve the humanitarian situation of the people of the DPRK,” she said.

China urges U.S. to take “meaningful, practical actions”

China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun defended Beijing’s opposition to new sanctions against North Korea saying China believes that “dialogue and negotiations are the only viable way to resolve the problem.” He called on the United States to take “meaningful, practical actions” to resume its dialogue with the country and find a political solution to the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

“We do not think additional sanctions will be helpful in responding to the current situation,” he told reporters Thursday. “Security Council sanctions are a means, not an end.”

Russia echoed similar views and said that further sanctions would create a humanitarian crisis for the North Korean people. Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya blamed the U.S. and other Western states saying they “know no response to crises other than sanctions,” adding that Russia, “always considered sanctions as a last-ditch measure.”

^{Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) with Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) during their meeting in Beijing, China, on February 4, 2022. (Image Credit: Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/via AP)}

North Korea launches ICBM after Biden Asia summit

North Korea has conducted a number of missile launches this year, from hypersonic weapons to test-firing its largest intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) for the first time in nearly five years.

On May 25, North Korea test-launched three missiles – a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile and two shorter-range weapons into the sea. One of the missiles appeared to be the North’s largest ICBM, the Hwasong-17.

The tests were conducted hours after U.S. President Joe Biden concluded his first trip to Asia where he reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend its allies in the face of the North’s nuclear threat.