Jan. 21 (UPI) —<\/span> The United Nations Security Council failed to impose a new round of U.S.-led sanctions on North Korean individuals over the regime’s latest ballistic missile launches, with Russia and China reportedly blocking the measure in an emergency closed-door meeting.<\/p>\n The meeting was held Thursday at the request of the United States and seven other Security Council member countries including Japan, Britain, France and Ireland, in response to a flurry of four missile tests by North Korea since the beginning of year.\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Washington last week imposed unilateral sanctions on several individuals and entities tied to the North’s weapons program and was looking to extend U.N.-backed sanctions to five of the designated North Koreans.<\/p>\n However, China had signaled in advance that it had no intention of allowing a discussion on the measure to proceed. Multiple media reports said that Russia joined China in placing a hold on the proposal, which requires a unanimous agreement from the Security Council’s 15 members.\n<\/p>\n U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the session that refusing to impose sanctions on North Korea gives the nuclear-armed state free rein to continue to develop its weapons program.<\/p>\n “We have these sanctions for a reason, and for any member state to oppose putting sanctions on that have been agreed to by the entire Security Council gives, in my view, the DPRK a blank check,” Thomas-Greenfield told reporters.<\/p>\n The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.\n<\/p>\n The meeting came after North Korea suggested that it may also lift a self-imposed four-year moratorium on nuclear weapon and ICBM tests in response to what leader Kim Jong Un called the “hostile policy” of the United States.<\/p>\n Earlier on Thursday, Thomas-Greenfield delivered a joint statement from eight member countries calling for the Security Council to “proactively support implementation” of existing resolutions that ban North Korea from developing ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n “These launches demonstrate the regime’s determination to pursue weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs at all costs, including at the expense of its own people,” the statement said.\n<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian indicated that the Security Council “has no plan to discuss the so-called draft resolution concerning sanctions on the DPRK.”\n<\/p>\n “We hope members of the Security Council will view the current situation prudently with a long-term perspective and the big picture in mind,” he said.<\/p>\n China’s special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, Liu Xiaoming, also poured cold water on the idea of additional sanctions, tweeting Thursday<\/a> that Washington “should abandon the belief that sanction is the answer for everything.”<\/p>\n Liu said that the United States should “take concrete actions to address the legitimate concerns of the DPRK and eliminate the security threat against the latter.”<\/p>\n Negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have been at a standstill since a Feb. 2019 summit failed to produce an agreement over denuclearization and the easing of sanctions.<\/p>\n Thomas-Greenfield revisited the sanctions dispute between Beijing and Washington at an event held by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Thursday after the Security Council meeting.<\/p>\n “[Sanctions are] an area where we have had some disagreement with our Chinese counterparts,” she said. “They are still are insisting on giving the DPRK a pass for breaking Security Council resolutions, for not adhering to sanctions and resolutions that the entire Council in unity agreed to,” Thomas-Greenfield said.<\/p>\n “We think we have to call [North Korea] out for their aggressions,” she added. “We have to hold them accountable.”\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
1\/4<\/p>\n
![\"China,](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/China-Russia-block-US-bid-for-more-North-Korea-sanctions.jpg\" "\\"China,")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Russia and China blocked a U.S.-led proposal for the U.N. Security Council to sanction five North Koreans over the country’s recent flurry of missile launches. File Photo by Stephen Shaver\/UPI | License Photo<\/div>\n\n