UN diplomats: US and China agree on new NKorea sanctions

This report surfaces as the USA and China’s top diplomats met in Washington this week and said they have been making “progress” on a draft United Nations resolution to step up sanctions against the North. In an independent set of fresh US sanctions passed by Congress, Washington targeted North Korea’s minerals’ trade. He told the Senate Armed Services Committee that China’s construction and military facilities are changing the operational landscape in the South China Sea.

The relations between South Korea and China face a rough ride given the slim chances for a reversal of the THAAD plan.

The draft resolution is expected to call for the blacklisting of a number of individuals and entities, diplomats said.

Addressing a question on the radar at the press conference, Mr Wang said the media should look beyond China’s activities and question why “advanced armaments and equipment emerging in the South China Sea, including the strategic bombers, the missile destroyers”, have been disregarded. But the Foreign Minister said focus should not be exclusively on China, but military build-ups by some other countries in the region.

It has been seven weeks since North Korea’s January 6 nuclear test, which was followed by a February 7 rocket launch.

“It’s a substantive, long, full draft… which I hope will be adopted in the coming days”, Reuters quoted a senior council diplomat as saying.

Beijing has been reluctant about backbiting sanctions that would take aim at North Korea’s already weak economy out of concern that the isolated state could collapse, unleashing chaos on China’s border.

“The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system (THAAD) is a measure of self-defence against growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea”, presidential spokesman Jeong Yeon-Guk said.

Kerry said Tuesday that North Korea can ultimately have a peace agreement with the USA if it will come to the table and negotiate denuclearization.

“The U.S. administration also reacted without much thought about the effects of its statements, such as Secretary of State John Kerry’s initial curt dismissal of China’s approach to getting the North to denuclearize”. “It’s something that we share”, he said.

On Tuesday, Chinese Ambassador Qiu Guohong expressed strong opposition to the deployment of the American anti-ballistic missile defense system in a meeting with Kim Chong-in, interim leader of the opposition Minjoo Party at the National Assembly.

The Security Council is scheduled to hold closed consultations Thursday afternoon on compliance with the North Korean sanctions resolutions, and the U.S.-China draft could be discussed then with the 10 non-permanent council members.