Russia and China moved to block the Biden administration’s bid to impose sanctions on North Koreans as Kim Jong-Un’s regime threatened to conduct nuclear weapons tests.
The UN members were set to conduct a closed-door meeting as part of the UN Security Council meeting. Both China and Russia blocked the US proposal ahead of the meeting.
North Korea conducted successive ballistic missile tests including what it called a hypersonic missile test starting from January 5.
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The US had imposed sanctions against five North Koreans last week for their alleged role in the country’s missile programme.
North Korea has conducted four missile tests in a matter of days at the start of this year including a ballistic missile launch from a train.
In a joint statement Japan, US, France, UAE and Britain said, “These launches demonstrate the regime’s determination to pursue weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs at all costs.”
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The Chinese foreign ministry however asserted that there was no case for “blindly resorting to sanction” while adding that “pressure would only escalate the tension further rather than settle the Peninsula issue.”
According to the US, one of the North Koreans Choe Myong Hyon was based in Russia and supported North Korea’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS) which is under sanctions.
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The talks between Kim’s regime and former US President Donald Trump had collapsed in 2019 over denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula as Kim Jong-Un continued to build ballistic and hypersonic programme although the Biden administration has expressed its willingness for talks with the North Korean regime but the move has so far been resisted by Kim.
(With inputs from Agencies)
