The United States is all set to urge the UN Security Council to vote during May to further sanction North Korea over its renewed ballistic missile launches, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield has said.
Reuters reported that the US circulated an initial draft resolution to the 15-member council last month that proposed banning tobacco and halving oil exports to North Korea and blacklisting the Lazarus hacking group.
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Meanwhile, Russia and China have already signalled opposition to boosting sanctions in response to Pyongyang’s March launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile – its first since 2017.
A Security Council resolution needs nine “yes” votes to pass, without a veto by Russia, China, France, Britain or the United States.
Speaking to reporters, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, “It is our plan to move forward with that resolution during this month.” The United States is president of the Security Council for May.
“We’re very concerned about the situation,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “It is our hope that we can keep the council unified in condemning those actions by the DPRK (North Korea).”
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Since 2006, North Korea has been subjected to UN sanctions, which the UN Security Council has steadily stepped up over the years in a bid to cut off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
But the hermit Asian state has successfully worked to evade some UN sanctions, according to independent UN sanctions monitors, who reported in February that North Korean cyberattacks on cryptocurrency exchanges were earning Pyongyang hundreds of millions of dollars.
