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India votes for US-sponsored UNSC resolution to raise N Korea sanctions, China, Russia veto it
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SME Times News Bureau | 27 May, 2022
India has voted for a United States-sponsored resolution to strengthen
sanctions on North Korea which was vetoed by China and Russia.
The
US launched the unsuccessful effort on Thursday to punish North Korea
which had tested three missiles on Wednesday after US President Joe
Biden had wrapped up a visit to South Korea and Japan.
Speaking
on the resolution, US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield
warned that North Korea was preparing for an imminent nuclear test.
The
failed resolution would have tightened sanctions on a wide range of
products ranging from crude oil to tobacco and frozen the assets of a
cybercriminal outfit.
The vetoes marked another stage of
intensification in the confrontations in the Council between the western
countries and China and Russia.
The other 13 countries in the Council presented a united front on the North Korea issue.
The
issue will now go to the General Assembly under new procedures adopted
by it following Russia's vetoes of resolutions in the Council condemning
its invasion of Ukraine.
Although the Assembly does not have the
enforcement powers of the Council, it will now take up issues vetoed by
a permanent member in the Council in the expectation that it will show
the isolation of the veto-wielder.
India, which had stayed
neutral on the resolutions on the Ukraine conflict that Russia had
vetoed, did not abstain on this resolution for which the prime
opposition came from China.
India did not speak during the
Council discussion on the resolution on Thursday but had previously
raised concerns about the transfer of North Korean missile technology to
Pakistan.
Without naming the two countries, India's Permanent
Representative T. S. Tirumurti told the Council on March 25, that "India
also believes that there is a pressing need to address the
proliferation of nuclear and missile technologies related to DPRK (North
Korea) in our region. These linkages have an adverse impact on peace
and security in the region, including on India".
North Korea has exchanged missile technology for nuclear weapon technology with Pakistan.
Before
the session started, China's Permanent Representatives Zhang Jun went
over to Tirumurti, who had been speaking at India's seat with Brazil's
envoy Ronaldo Costa Filho.
Zhan sat down on a seat for the Indian
delegation behind Tirumurti's and the three diplomats were seen in an
animated conversation.
Later speaking to the Council on the
resolution, Zhang tried to link it to the Indo-Pacific developments
asserting that the US was making North Korea a chess pawn for its
strategy for the region.
During his Asian trip, Biden had held a
Quad summit in Japan with Prime Ministers Narendra Modi of India, Fumio
Kishida of Japan and newly-elected Anthony Albanese of Australia.
Zhang
said: "The crux of the matter is whether or not someone wants to use
the Korean peninsula issue as a card for its so-called Indo-Pacific
strategy, whether or not they want to use the handling of the Korean
peninsula issue as a chessman on the chessboard for their so-called
Indo-Pacific strategy. That's the very nature of the issue."
He
and Russia's Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzia said that the
punitive sanctions would not help resolve the problem with Pyongyang but
would only add to the sufferings of the people in that country.
Thomas-Greenfield
said that the Council's restraint had been counterproductive and "the
DPRK has taken the Council's silence as a green light to act with
impunity and escalate tensions on the Peninsula".
She said that the sanctions would not affect the humanitarian needs of the North Korean people who are facing a Covid crisis.
The US has offered vaccines and medical help, which Pyongyang has not accepted, she said.
North
Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, a mercurial personality, appears to be
testing Biden and trying to take advantage of the preoccupation with
Ukraine.
He has carried out at least 16 missile tests so far this
year, some of them that could be inter-continental ballistic missiles
(ICBMs).
Kim Jong-Un suspended missile and nuclear tests in 2017
during a bout of diplomacy with an equally unpredictable former US
President Donald Trump, who matched his verbal bluster.
Trump's diplomatic efforts ended after a failed meeting with Kim in Singapore.
Kim resumed missile tests last year, two days after Biden took office.
The
sanctions that the US proposed would have cut crude oil exports to
North Korea and banned its mineral products exports as well as of some
other materials.
Tobacco exports to North Korea would have also been curtailed.
The
US also sought to freeze the assets of an organisation called Lazarus
Group, which North Korea uses for cyber heists and espionage and which
has been accused of spreading malware.
The freeze would also have
applied to a company that provides manpower abroad and to another that
is a defence contractor in Mozambique.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
Export |
US Dollar
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106.35
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102.90 |
Euro
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87.90 |
Japanese
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52.70 |
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