(United Nations) The UN Security Council is called upon to vote on Thursday, at Washington’s request, for a resolution toughening international sanctions against North Korea, despite the risk, barring a possible new initiative by Pyongyang, of a veto of China and Russia.
Posted at 5:13 p.m.
Updated at 7:23 p.m.
President-in-Office of the Security Council in May and therefore in control of its agenda, the United States have scheduled the vote for the end of the afternoon.
Faced with a series of North Korean ballistic missile tests since January, including probably its largest intercontinental missile fired on Wednesday, Washington has drawn up a draft resolution which notably provides for a further reduction in oil imports by Pyongyang.
According to a senior US official, a 2017 Security Council resolution, adopted unanimously at the time, called for additional sanctions for North Korea in the event of an intercontinental ballistic missile launch and Washington intends to enforce this provision.
“It was one of the conditions of this resolution. That’s exactly what happened and that’s why we think now is the time to act,” he said, as Washington recently warned of an impending new North Korean nuclear test.
If this test were carried out, it is possible that Beijing and Moscow will not use their right of veto in the Security Council and accept new sanctions, according to a diplomat.
The American draft text plans to reduce from four to three million barrels (525,000 tons to 393,750 tons) the quantity of crude oil that North Korea would be authorized to import each year. The import of refined oil, limited to 500,000 barrels per year, would increase to 375,000 barrels (or 46,875 tons).
The text would also ban North Korean exports of mineral fuels and clocks, and any sale or transfer to Pyongyang of tobacco and tobacco products.
Tobacco and cyber activities
It would also prevent the supply to North Korea of means of information and communication, in order to fight against the cyber activities developed in recent years by Pyongyang to circumvent international sanctions.
Asked about a possible veto by China and Russia, the senior American official limited himself to affirming: “We believe that this resolution will be strongly supported because it is a question of deep importance for us, obviously, and for our allies in Japan and South Korea.
For an ambassador member of the Security Council, speaking on condition of anonymity, increasing the sanctions on the sole basis of ballistic experiments should not be accepted by Beijing. And if there is a veto, this will have negative consequences, he judges.
Pyongyang “is making progress in its ballistic program, continuing to develop its proliferating nuclear activities and violating Security Council resolutions”. But “a division of the Security Council on this crisis would be bad”, he adds, recalling that this is a crucial question of “nuclear proliferation”.
“We should prioritize the unity of the five nuclear states” of the Security Council (United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom and France) “on this issue”. “If the project is rejected, it will be good news for the young leader of North Korea and then we will be in a difficult position to […] keep up the pressure for a sanctions regime that works,” he insisted.
In the past, North Korea has carried out six nuclear tests sanctioned in particular in 2017 by a triple series of heavy economic sanctions, adopted unanimously by the Security Council.
Since then, this Council has never succeeded in regaining its unity on this dossier. China and Russia have even gone so far as to draw up a draft resolution easing the sanctions against Pyongyang on a humanitarian basis.
If North Korea has developed its ballistic armament and has several nuclear bombs, it has not yet succeeded, according to diplomats, in combining the two technologies.
North Korea’s missile launches on Wednesday came hours after US President Joe Biden left the region, who came to Asia to reaffirm his support for Seoul and Tokyo in the face of the nuclear threat from Pyongyang.