US calls for UN vote on fresh sanctions on North Korea

Bloomberg

The US said it would seek a vote on Monday on a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on North Korea, as it pushes for fresh sanctions against the regime after its recent nuclear test. The US informed the Security Council of its plan to call the vote, the State Department said in a brief statement, adding it would look to impose
further penalties on Pyongyang.
Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said he hoped for a firm UN resolution, adding stronger economic penalties might lead to a change in North Korea’s behaviour. “Oil sanctions are the most effective sanctions, so I’d like to strongly ask for this,” he said on Saturday on
Nippon Television.
President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing the Security Council to adopt a united stance as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seeks the capability to strike the US with a nuclear weapon. Kim has said he won’t negotiate unless America drops its “hostile” policies.
The US has warned that time is running out to act. North Korea detonated its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb on Sunday which it said was a hydrogen device, and may launch another intercontinental ballistic missile as soon as Saturday, the anniversary of its founding. Recent missile tests point to advancements by North Korea in developing a missile that could reach the continental US.
Still, a halt to oil exports is far from certain. While China and Russia have condemned Kim’s actions, they have said the ultimate goal needs to be to coax him to the negotiating table and avoid a war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said more sanctions wouldn’t work, while China is wary about cutting off Kim’s economic lifeline to the point it risks collapsing his regime. China is North Korea’s main ally and by far its biggest trading partner, including for oil shipments. Observers have said Beijing might agree to just a partial, or temporary, oil exports ban.
China will support further UN action if it helps restart dialogue with North Korea, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said. The US has circulated a draft resolution that would, aside from barring crude oil shipments to North Korea, ban the nation’s exports of textiles and prohibit employment of its guest workers by other countries, according to a diplomat at the world body. The proposal, which also calls for freezing Kim’s assets, has been sent to the 15 members of the Security Council, the diplomat said.
North Korean state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in an editorial on Saturday that Pyongyang was now a nuclear power and praised Kim for his “brilliant achievement” in strengthening “
defenses to protect the Korean peninsula from invasion.”
The state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary also on Saturday that the US was resorting to sanctions and pressure rather than seeking talks. “The Trump administration and the Congress often claim that North Korea is a ‘rogue state’ and that the US is considering the way for stop to all trading of any country with North Korea, vociferating about ‘strong military counteraction’ and ‘tougher sanctions’,” KCNA said.
“Neither sanctions nor military threat can work on the Korean people who are advancing under the banner of self-reliance, rallied close as one in mind around their great leader and great party,” it said.
North Korea already warned
the US will “pay dearly” after its UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said the regime was “begging for war.”
Describing Haley’s comments as
a “hysteric fit,” KCNA threatened
unspecified retribution.