US at odds with China, Russia over North Korea sanctions

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned members of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that they should "set the example" by enforcing sanctions on North Korea as China and Russia.

China and Russia said the council should reward Pyongyang for the "positive developments" this year with US President Kim Jong-un and Kim Dae-jung.

Pompeo chaired a meeting of the 15-member council on the day of the meeting. Pompeo plans to travel to Pyongyang next month.

But until Pyongyang gives up its nuclear weapons program, Pompeo said: "Enforcement of Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize the fully, final, verified denuclearisation."

"The members of the council must set the example on that effort," Pompeo said.

Earlier this month, US Ambassador to the United States.

The Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The Chinese government's top diplomat Wang Yi noted that there are provisions in the Security Council for North Korea complies.

He said that "given the positive developments", the DPRK and other relevant parties to move forward further, "using North Korea's official name of Democratic People's Republic of Korea DPRK).

However, US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said later on Thursday that the council resolutions on North Korea do not provide for any exceptions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov backed his Chinese colleague. Lavrov said that "any negotiation is a two-way street."

He was also critical of several US attempts to tighten UN sanctions on North Korea in recent months.

Pyongyang breached sanctions, diplomats said, that Pyongyang has been involved in a number of US petroleum exports to North Korea.

Then the last month, Russia and China to propose to add a Russian bank, a Moscow-based banker and two other entities to a UN Security Council blacklist, diplomats said.

"Further increase of sanctions goes to cutting-off financing of banned missile and nuclear programs, and North Korean citizens would and would bring extreme socio-economic and humanitarian suffering," Lavrov said.

Lavrov said the Security Council should send a clear signal in support of the positive momentum on the Korean peninsula.

"This could be done, for example, by adopting a relevant resolution and we want to prepare a draft of such a resolution and propose it to the Security Council," he said.

Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, speaking at the same meeting, agreed that the council should recognize that "recent progress has shown that it is possible to diffuse through dialogue and cooperation."

Diplomats have said that the United States did not want the Security Council to issue a statement on the developments. (Reuters)

Source: koreatimes