UN Security Council fails to adopt new sanctions on North Korea

WASHINGTON (AA) – The UN Security Council failed to adopt new US-backed sanctions on North Korea on Thursday due to opposition from China and Russia.

The council’s 13 other members voted in favor of the new economic penalties in response to Pyongyang’s ballistic missile and nuclear tests. But China and Russia’s statuses as permanent council members mean their opposition is an effective veto of the draft resolution.

The vote came one day after North Korea carried out a series of ballistic missile tests, including of one believed to be its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

The North is prohibited from conducting ballistic missile and nuclear tests under successive council resolutions, but it has over the past year conducted several tests in defiance of the international community.

The sanctions envisioned in the draft text would have targeted North Korea’s tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes as well as mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation.

With the latest launches, North Korea has fired 17 missiles since the beginning of this year, all of which run afoul of existing UN Security Council resolutions. The US and its allies have warned that it is also preparing for a nuclear test, which would be the North’s first since 2017.

Explaining its veto, China said it believes that “dialogue and negotiations are the only viable way to resolve the problem.”