UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The U.N. Security Council votes Wednesday on a resolution that would impose the toughest sanctions on North Korea in two decades.
Angola’s U.N. Ambassador Ismael Gaspar Martins, the current council president, said Tuesday that hopefully the resolution will be adopted “by consensus.”
The U.S. and North Korea’s traditional ally China spent seven weeks negotiating the new sanctions – which include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by sea or air – in response to Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test and rocket launch. Both are in defiance of previous council resolutions.
But Russia, which received the new draft Thursday along with other council members, asked for time to study the lengthy text, and suggested changes. The U.S. wanted a vote Tuesday afternoon but Russia delayed it to Wednesday morning.
The U.S., its Western allies and Japan pressed for new sanctions that went beyond the North’s nuclear and missile programs but China, Pyongyang’s neighbor, was reluctant to impose measures that could threaten the stability of North Korea and cause its economy to collapse.