U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power tells NPR’s Robert Siegel that the resolution, submitted Thursday to the Security Council, “is almost unprecedented in many respects and is the toughest sanctions resolution that has been put forward in more than two decades”. “It’s breaking new ground in a whole host of ways”, Power said before heading into a closed-door meeting where the USA planned to circulate the draft to all 15 council members.
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The United States and the ROK started talks on THAAD after the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6 and allegedly launched an Earth-observation satellite to test ballistic missile technology on February 7 this year.
The text of the draft is not yet available but the document will likely be voted in by the full Security Council “in a couple of days”, once other nations have an opportunity to weigh in on the language, according to the diplomat.
In his speech, Wang reiterated China’s principle of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the realization of the goal through negotiations.
In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the resolution praised China’s cooperation.
“I think when you look at what it’s designed for, and that’s a North Korean type problem, I think (I have) a very high confidence that we would have the capability”, Haney said after visiting a nondescript metal building where workers assemble the ground-based interceptor at the heart of the defense system. “It’s not easy, but it certainly is an indication that the United States and China, when our interests are aligned, can cooperate quite effectively to advance the interests of citizens in both our countries”, Earnest said.
A local Chinese businessman said: “Most North Korean exports now come through Dandong port and an entry ban on North Korean ships may upset North Korea’s economic growth, as well as its efforts to earn hard currency”. Moreover, there would be a ban on aviation and rocket fuel supplies to the North, as well as a ban on North Korean flights suspected of carrying illicit products.
They “send a clear message to the North Korean regime: (.) we will work tirelessly and collectively to stop your nuclear program”, she added. President Park Geun-hye earlier this month shut down an industrial complex jointly run with North Korea, insisting that the Kim regime has been using revenue from that project to fund its nuclear arms development.
Included on an extensive list of luxury items which North Korea would no longer be allowed to import are products such as luxury watches, snowmobiles, recreational water vehicles and lead crystal.
North Korea has been under United Nations sanctions since 2006 because of its multiple nuclear tests and rocket launches.
For weeks, the US and Japan have been seeking China’s support to curb North Korea’s access to worldwide ports, and to further tighten restrictions on its access to the global financial system, according to diplomats.
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The Global Times, a paper published by the Chinese Communist Party, recently reported that Chinese companies would be banned from importing coal from the North from March 1.
