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The United States and China have presented a draft
resolution to the United Nations Security Council for stronger
sanctions against North Korea in response to Pyongyang's
latest nuclear test and rocket launch.
Samantha Power, US envoy to the UN, said the draft, which
for the first time would subject cargo ships leaving and
entering North Korea to mandatory inspections, would
significantly increase pressure on Pyongyang.
"It is a major upgrade and there will be, provided it goes
forward, pressure on more points, tougher, more
comprehensive, more sectors. It's breaking new ground in a
whole host of ways," Power said, before heading into a
closed meeting in which the US planned to circulate the
draft to all 15 council members.
The draft is the result of an agreement between the US and
China, North Korea's main ally, whose involvement signals
a policy shift with regard to its neighbour. The council is
expected to vote on the draft over the weekend.
"We are opposed to any nuclear testing and the launch
testing of ballistic missile technology and we hope this
resolution will help to prevent further occurrences of this
nature," China's Ambassador Liu Jieyi said, following the
meeting.
However, China did not want to exhort too much pressure
because a collapse of the North Korean system could lead
to "an expanded South Korea on China's border with its US
allies there as well," Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, reporting
from Seoul, said.
"The question is, as always, whether North Korea will get
around these sanctions and also the level of enforcement of
such sanctions. That has been extremely difficult to pin
down on that border between China and North Korea," he
said.
"What is significant though is that we have had reports from
the northern side of that border saying that things have
changed at least in the short term. North Korean ships not
coming into port, Chinese trucks coming back from North
Korea empty."
Troy Stangarone, a senior director for congressional affairs
and trade at the Korean Economic Institute, told Al Jazeera
that Pyongyang was likely to strike back.
"We should expect North Korea to try to respond with some
kind of provocation. Most likely this will be something in
terms of cyber warfare or some other area where it is hard to
identify North Korea as an actual perpetrator," he said,
speaking from Washington DC.
Draft details
According to Power, the sanctions would prohibit the sale of
small arms and other conventional weapons to North Korea,
closing a loophole in earlier resolutions.
Power said the sanctions would also limit and in some
cases ban exports of coal, iron, gold, titanium and rare earth
minerals from North Korea, and would ban countries from
supplying aviation fuel, including rocket fuel, to the country.
The resolution also imposes financial sanctions targeting
North Korean banks and assets, and bans all dual-use
nuclear and missile-related items.
Items such as luxury watches, snowmobiles, recreational
water vehicles and lead crystal were also added to a long
list of luxury goods that North Korea is not allowed to import.
North Korea started off the new year with what it claims was
its first hydrogen bomb test on January 6 and followed that
up with the launch of a satellite on a rocket on February 7
that was condemned by much of the world as a test of
banned missile technology.
Over the past 20 years, North Korea has conducted four
nuclear tests and launched six long-range rockets - all in
violation of Security Council resolutions.
