US proposes new North Korea sanctions at UN Security Council

The United States has reportedly presented a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council that would impose new sanctions on North Korea over the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The draft resolution is expected to be submitted to the Security Council for voting on Friday, AFP reported on Thursday quoting diplomats who are privy to the matter.  

The text of the draft condemns "in the strongest terms" North Korea’s recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

The Security Council demands Pyongyang "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner," and end all ballistic missile test launches.

The draft resolution also calls for sanctions against another 14 individuals and four entities accused of contributing to the missile programs whose assets would be frozen and who would face a travel ban.

According to reports, the draft is prepared in agreement with Pyongyang's diplomatic and military ally, China, who has a veto power at the Security Council.

Last week, the Security Council released a unanimously-backed statement, strongly condemning the North's latest missile test, while calling on the UN's sanction committee to increase its efforts towards implementing sanctions on the country.

The council members have agreed to "take further significant measures including sanctions" to compel North Korea to alter its actions and end its "highly destabilizing behavior."

The latest test came less than a week after the North test-fired a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile, which landed in the sea between North Korea and Japan on May 14.

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The North, already under an array of sanctions for its missile and nuclear programs, says it is developing arms as deterrence against the US threat. North Korea has also said that it would not abandon its missile and nuclear programs unless the US ended its hostility toward Pyongyang.

Unsettled by North Korean missile and nuclear programs, the United States has adopted a war-like posture, sending a strike group and conducting joint military drills with North Korea’s regional adversaries Japan and South Korea.

In addition to a naval strike group, which includes the large USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, Washington deployed two supersonic bombers over the peninsula during a joint exercise with South Korea’s air force last month. The USS Michigan nuclear submarine has also joined the strike group.

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