Japan backs fresh United Nations sanctions against North

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer arrives for a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, April 12, 2017.

North Korea warned today it would inflict “the greatest pain and suffering” on the USA if Washington persists in pushing for harsher United Nations sanctions following Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test. John McCain, R-Ariz., which did not rule out nuclear armament for South Korea and Japan. “That means the maximum possible pressure”.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has expressed concern that increasing sanctions on oil would have negative humanitarian impacts for the North Korean people.

The Aug. 5 resolution adopted by the council capped the number of North Koreans working overseas at the current level.

The tensions have weighed on global markets but there was some relief on Monday that North Korea did not conduct a further missile test when it celebrated its founding anniversary at the weekend. In order for the U.N.to pass additional sanctions against North Korea, the United States needs China-Pyongyang’s main trading partner and ally-to be on board.

South Korean politicians are divided over redeployment.

“Right now I don’t expect North Korea to be interested any kind of freezing negotiations, nuclear arms control negotiations, until they will acquire the proven capability to deliver a strike on the continental United States”, said Professor Andrei Lankov, a North Korea analyst with Kookmin University in Seoul.

“That is why we have offered to be helpful in the search for new ways to de-escalate the situation”, he said, hours before the U.N. Security Council was due to vote on a USA -drafted resolution that would impose new sanctions on Pyongyang.

The sanctions are in response to North Korea’s ongoing nuclear weapon and missile programs and its latest nuclear test.

China has already come out against American calls for cutting its oil sales to North Korea, while the USA has rejected Beijing’s insistence for the Trump administration to engage Pyongyang in diplomatic talks.

The US president has refused to rule out military action in North Korea, made dramatic threats against Pyongyang (including one of “fire and fury”), and tweeted that “talking is not the answer” for reining in the nation’s alarmingly fast weapons development.

Beijing and Moscow have called for a resolution that focuses on a political solution and proposed a freeze-for-freeze that would halt North Korean nuclear and missile tests in exchange for the USA and South Korea stopping their joint military exercises.