UN Security Council splits on North Korea
NEW YORK: A decision by China and Russia to veto new United Nations sanctions on North Korea pushed by the US has shattered any veneer of global cooperation, straining efforts to pressure Pyongyang as it prepares to conduct a new nuclear test.
The two countries yesterday vetoed a USled push to impose more UN sanctions on North Korea over its renewed ballistic missile launches, publicly splitting the UN Security Council for the first time since it started punishing Pyongyang in 2006.
US officials slammed it as a ‘‘sharp departure from the Council’s track record of collective action on this issue.’’
‘‘Today’s vote means North Korea will feel more free to take further escalatory actions,’’ Jeffrey Prescott, deputy to the US Ambassador to the UN, said on Twitter. ‘‘But we can’t resign ourselves to this fate — that would be far too dangerous.’’
Russia’s UN ambassador called the resolution ‘‘a path to a dead end,’’ while China’s envoy said it would only lead to more ‘‘negative effects and escalation of confrontation.’’
Analysts and some diplomats said Washington may have miscalculated in its rush to impose consequences for North Korea’s missile tests.
‘‘I think it was a big mistake for the US to push for what was sure to fail rather than showing unified opposition to North Korea’s actions,’’ said Jenny Town, director of the USbased 38 North programme, which monitors North Korea. ‘‘In the current political environment, the idea that China and Russia could agree with the US on anything would have sent a strong signal to Pyongyang.’’
The United States assessed that North Korea had tested six intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) this year and was ‘‘actively preparing to conduct a nuclear test,’’ which would be the country’s first since 2017.
Over the past 16 years the Security Council has steadily, and unanimously, stepped up sanctions to cut off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. It last tightened sanctions on Pyongyang in 2017.
Professor at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok Artyom Lukin said it seemed like the United States wanted to provoke and produce this split in the Security Council, knowing that China and Russia would not support the resolution.
‘‘Even though Moscow and Washington have a real shared interest in the denuclearisation of North Korea, it has now become extremely difficult, if not impossible, for them to collaborate,’’ Lukin said. — Reuters