South Korea claimed on Wednesday that North Korea had fired at least three ballistic missiles.
Washington:
The United States will soon call on the UN Security Council to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea after it fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, a senior US official said on Wednesday.
The official expected a vote “in the coming days” that would significantly curb oil imports, although diplomats say Russia and China could use their veto power.
U.S. officials noted that Security Council Resolution 2397, which was unanimously adopted in 2017, called for further consequences in the case of another ICBM launch.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “It was a provision of that resolution. That is exactly what happened and so we think it is time to take action.”
The United States will chair the UN Security Council later this month.
The official declined to comment on whether Russia and China would veto the resolution, but said, “We think there will be strong support for this resolution because it is an issue that is very important to us, obviously, (and) very important to us. He is from South Korea. “
A draft text would reduce the amount of oil that North Korea could legally import each year for civilian purposes from four million to three million barrels (525,000 to 393,750 tons).
This would reduce imports of similarly refined petroleum from 500,000 to 375,000 barrels.
The proposal would further impose sanctions on North Korean exports, including watches, clocks and fossil fuels.
The United States and South Korea have said that North Korea fired three missiles, possibly including its largest ICBM, just hours after President Joe Biden stopped touring the region.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published from a syndicated feed.)
