A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that Foreign Minister Wang, now in Washington, spoke to Mr. Kerry about pursuing parallel talks on denuclearization and replacing the 1953 Korean War armistice with a peace treaty.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) The United States and China have reached agreement on a U.N. resolution that would impose tougher sanctions on North Korea as punishment for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, U.N. diplomats say.
Russian Railways (RZD) said Thursday that it might be forced to suspend its Rajin-Khasan trade logistics project with North Korea, depending on the passage of new United Nations sanctions against the communist North for the latter’s recent nuclear test and a long-range missile launch.
Shortly after the launch, South Korea signaled its intent to begin discussions with the US on the deployment of a missile defence system to counter the threat from the North. The US also tightened its own sanctions. “They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state”.
China and America have had different views on how strong the response should be to North Korea, since the nuclear test.
“As for the draft resolution, I can confirm that we have received the text, it was worked out by the United States that held consultations with a number of countries”, she said.
Diplomats have already mentioned earlier that Beijing and Washington had agreed already on a draft resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea and the Security Council voted the measure in the next days.
The council will likely adopt the sanction measures in a matter of days after the draft resolution is reviewed by member states.
The draft is the result of an agreement between the United States and China, North Korea’s main ally.
“There is no question that if the resolution is approved, it will go beyond anything previously passed”, Mr. Kerry told a joint press briefing in Washington on Tuesday.
The draft resolution has not been made public, but other sources said that it calls for blacklisting three key state agencies overseeing Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs as well as espionage operations – the General Reconnaissance Bureau, the Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry and the National Aerospace Development Administration.
The Council first imposed sanctions on Pyongyang back in 2006, and the USA has argued for further sanctions since the country has so far not been deterred from going forward with its nuclear ambitions.
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After a decade of sanctions, the panel said, it found “no indications that the country intends to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs”.
