China and Russia’s veto of North Korea resolution ‘undermines collective security’, says US envoy to UN
- Resolution would have cut amount of oil Pyongyang could legally import for civilian purposes from 4 million barrels a year to 3 million
- Russia’s ambassador to the UN says US and its Western allies ‘seem to have no response to crisis situations other than introducing new sanctions’
Thursday’s US-drafted resolution in the UN Security Council would have pared back the amount of oil North Korea could legally import for civilian purposes from 4 million barrels annually to 3 million barrels and cut the level of refined petroleum.
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Thirteen members of the 15-member Security Council supported the resolution. Of the 15, only five permanent members – China, Russia, the US, Britain and France – have veto power. The remaining 10 positions rotate among other nations.
China, North Korea’s closest ally, bridled at the imposition of sanctions against Pyongyang despite supporting similar measures in the past.
The US “should not place one-sided emphasis on the implementation of sanctions alone. It should also work to promote a political solution,” China’s ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun said on Thursday.
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Russia, which has struggled to import vital technology and seen overseas accounts and the assets of its oligarchs frozen since the invasion, accused Washington of ignoring North Korea’s request to ease hostilities.
“It seems that our American and other Western colleagues are suffering from the equivalent of writer’s block,” said Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia. “They seem to have no response to crisis situations other than introducing new sanctions.”
Thomas-Greenfield said this was the first time in 15 years that Security Council members – without mentioning China or Russia by name – had used a veto to stop the council from holding North Korea accountable for unlawful testing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The Security Council agreed to impose sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear test blast in 2006. It tightened these in 10 subsequent resolutions in following years, trying unsuccessfully to contain Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and halt its financing.
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“We three countries reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of the DPRK,” Thomas-Greenfield said on Thursday. “We urge the DPRK to invest in its people instead of its destabilising weapons.”
In an explanation of China’s veto, Zhang said its action was taken in part because of “the negative impact on the DPRK’s domestic response to Covid-19”, blaming the lack of dialogue and negotiation on the US.
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“Additional sanctions against the DPRK will not help resolve the problem, but only lead to more negative effects and escalation of confrontation,” Zhang said. “The situation on the peninsula has developed to what it is today, primarily due to the flip-flop of the US policies, and its failure to uphold the results of previous dialogue. This is an undeniable fact.”
Thomas-Greenfield countered that the US had made “serious, sustained efforts, publicly and privately, to pursue diplomacy with the DPRK without preconditions”. She said the US, Japan and South Korea would continue to speak out and work together to protect the region and the world “from the DPRK’s continued and unprovoked escalations”.
