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United Nations, June 3 (AP) — The United States and its allies clashed with Russia and China on Friday over North Korea’s failed launch of a military spy satellite this week, violating multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions that Moscow and Beijing refused to condemn. resolution.
The confrontation is the latest clash over North Korea’s escalating nuclear, ballistic missile and military programs, which U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood has warned are threatening international peace and security.
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The failed launch “not only disrupted sea and air traffic in the region, but also alarmed neighboring Japan and the Republic of Korea,” he said.
Pyongyang has threatened to launch again soon.
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The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006 and has tightened sanctions over the years through a total of 10 resolutions aimed, so far unsuccessfully, at limiting its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and cutting off funding.
In the last sanctions resolution adopted by the Security Council in December 2017, member states pledged to further restrict oil exports to North Korea if it launched a ballistic missile capable of reaching intercontinental range.
China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions on a range of ICBM launches, including on oil exports. They have since blocked any council action, including press statements.
The last time North Korea conducted a satellite launch similar to Wednesday’s failed satellite launch was on Feb. 7, 2016, and was condemned by the council, UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the council.
“The lack of unity and action in the Security Council will not slow down the negative trajectory of the Korean peninsula,” she said, adding that North Korea “is unfettered and other parties have to focus on military deterrence.”
But North Korea’s neighbors and allies, China and Russia, which have moved closer to Pyongyang since the Ukraine war, blame the West, especially the United States, for the current tensions.
Geng Shuang, China’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said the situation on the Korean peninsula was a remnant of the Cold War.
He accused the United States of failing to respond to North Korea’s dialogue attempts for years and instead resorting to sanctions and pressure on Pyongyang, missing the opportunity to resolve the nuclear issue.
“The United States has incorporated the (Korean) peninsula into its Indo-Pacific strategy, continued its military activities, and substantially increased its military presence on the peninsula and surrounding areas, seriously damaging the strategic security interests of the peninsula and surrounding areas. The country,” Geng said
He also referred to the recent US-South Korea Washington Declaration, which includes plans to send strategic nuclear submarines to the peninsula.
Geng claimed that the U.S. policy was “driven by geopolitical self-interest,” and told the Security Council that blaming one side “will only exacerbate conflicts and provocations, injecting new uncertainties into the already tense situation on the peninsula.”
He urged the Security Council to pass a resolution circulated by China and Russia in November 2021 to end a series of sanctions on North Korea, saying it would be a starting point to “promote de-escalation, mutual trust and cooperation among the 15 members.” unity”.
Russia’s deputy ambassador, Anna Evstigneeva, blamed “the escalation of tensions we are witnessing now” on growing pressure on North Korea from the United States and its allies. She also criticized the increasing military activities of the United States, Japan and South Korea, especially the recent large-scale US-South Korea military exercises, saying they are destabilizing not only Northeast Asia but the entire Asia-Pacific region.
Evstigneeva said Russia opposed “a dead-end and inhumane policy that increases the pressure of sanctions,” stressing that the U.N. resolution imposing the sanctions also supports efforts to resolve the situation on the Korean peninsula through political and diplomatic means.
She said Russia called on the United States to take steps to ease tensions and resume dialogue rather than trying to “shift the blame to other countries” and supported Security Council action on the Sino-Russian resolution.
U.S. envoy Wood countered that the Washington declaration was a response to North Korea’s destabilizing nuclear and ballistic missile activities.
“It’s hard to imagine us easing sanctions as called for in the China-Russia draft resolution” and rewarding Pyongyang for its continued violations of Security Council resolutions, he said.
As for diplomacy, Wood said the U.S. has repeatedly expressed readiness for unconditional dialogue, but North Korea has “repeatedly rejected our intervention.”
He emphasized that the U.S.-South Korea military exercises are a legitimate effort to fend off Pyongyang’s escalating activities that allow the country to advance its illegitimate WMD and ballistic missile programs — and for its people “to continue to choose the ammunition of choice.” Not nutrition.” (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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