U.S. calls for vote Monday on new slate of sanctions
UNITED NATIONS — The United States called for a vote Monday on a U.N. resolution that would impose the toughest-ever sanctions on North Korea, a move that could lead to a showdown with the country’s biggest trading partner, China, and its neighbor Russia.
The Trump administration adopted a totally new approach with this resolution, circulating an American draft Tuesday and setting a vote six days later. With previous sanctions resolutions, the U.S. spent weeks and sometimes months negotiating the text with China and then presenting a resolution to the rest of the Security Council for a vote.
Several diplomats said the U.S. demand for a speedy council vote is directed at putting maximum pressure on China and reflected Washington’s escalating concern over North Korea’s latest nuclear test, which its leaders touted as a hydrogen bomb, and its recent ballistic missile launch over Japan.
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, who backs “robust” new sanctions, said Thursday that the U.S. proposals to ban all oil imports and textile exports and prohibit North Koreans from working overseas — which helps fund and fuel the country’s nuclear and missile programs — are “a proportionate response” to its “illegal and reckless behavior.”
Rycroft stressed that “maximum possible pressure” must be exerted on North Korea to change course and give diplomacy a chance to end the crisis.
The proposed U.S. sanctions would also freeze all foreign financial assets of the government and its leader, Kim Jong Un. The U.S. draft also identified nine ships that have carried out activities prohibited by previous U.N. resolutions and would authorize any U.N. member state to stop the vessels on the high seas without their consent and use “all necessary measures” — which in U.N. language includes force — to carry out an inspection and direct the vessel to a port.
Professor Joseph DeThomas of Pennsylvania State University, a former State Department official who dealt with North Korea, said the U.S. demand for quick council action is “an indicator of how the administration thinks time has run out.”
“My sense is they believe that they don’t have time for a delicate diplomatic dance,” he said. “The other possibility ... is they want to see the color of China’s money. They’re putting down the marker here and saying ‘OK, Are you prepared to do what is necessary to put pressure on North Korea at a moment when we’re simply out of time?’”
Russia has said sanctions aren’t working and President Vladimir Putin expressed concern that a total oil cutoff could hurt the North Korean people. Beijing and Moscow have proposed a freeze-for-freeze that would halt North Korean nuclear and missile tests in exchange for the U.S. and South Korea halting their joint military exercises — an initiative rejected by the Trump administration.