The United States has proposed a resolution at the United Nations that would include broad new sanctions on North Korea and freeze the assets of leader Kim Jong Un, according to a UN diplomat.
The draft resolution includes a full ban on exports of oil to North Korea, a full ban on textile imports from North Korea, a ban on North Korean laborers generating earnings overseas, and the asset freeze, which will also target members of the ruling worker’s party, the diplomat said, calling it a “hard-hitting, ambitious resolution.”
Another diplomat confirmed to CNN that the US delegation has circulated the resolution to security council members who will engage in intense negotiations.
Details of the draft resolution were first reported by AFP.
On Sunday, North Korea tested what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb, marking the sixth time the isolated state has tested a nuclear weapon. The move was met with outrage at the United Nations, where diplomats convened Monday for an emergency session of the security council.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley argued forcefully for harsher sanctions, saying, “enough is enough,” and that Kim was “begging for war.”
“We have taken an incremental approach, and despite the best of intentions, it has not worked,” Haley said. “War is never something the Unites States wants – we don’t want it now. But our country’s patience is not unlimited. We will defend our allies and our territory.”
At the conclusion of the meeting, Haley said that the US would circulate a resolution in response to the nuclear test, with plans for a vote on it next week.
But international consensus on how to address the North Korean nuclear threat remains elusive.
North Korea’s largest trading partner, China, has urged all sides to ratchet down their rhetoric.
China, along with Russia, has advocated for a so-called “freeze for freeze” approach, under which North Korea would cease conducting nuclear and missile tests in exchange for the United States and South Korea ending longstanding joint military exercises – a proposal that Haley has called “insulting.”
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump spoke with his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, to discuss the recent hydrogen bomb test.
According to a readout released by the White House, the leaders “condemned North Korea’s latest provocative and destabilizing action and noted North Korea’s current path is dangerous to the world and not in its own interest.”
“President Trump and President Xi committed to strengthen coordination and take further action with the goal of achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the statement went on to say.
CNN’s Jeremy Herb, Joshua Berlinger and Taehoon Lee contributed to this report.
