The 15-member council met over what Pyongyang said was the launch on Thursday of its largest Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korea has been under UN sanctions for its missile and nuclear programs since 2006.
China and Russia blamed joint military drills by the US and South Korea for provoking Pyongyang while Washington accuses Beijing and Moscow of emboldening North Korea by shielding it from more sanctions.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres “remains deeply concerned over the divisions that have prevented the international community from acting on this matter,” a senior U.N. official said at the meeting.
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Anna Evstigneeva described the US and South Korean military activity as “unprecedented,” while China’s deputy UN ambassador Geng Shuang questioned whether they were defensive drills and blamed them for heightening tensions.
“These exercises are long-standing, they are routine. They are purely defensive in nature … The US harbours no hostile intent toward the DPRK,” said US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, using its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
For the past several years the council has been divided over how to deal with Pyongyang. Russia and China, veto powers along with the US, Britain and France, have said more sanctions will not help and want such measures to be eased. Geng said it was intended as a goodwill gesture to try and create favourable conditions for a detente.
Thomas-Greenfield said lifting UN sanctions would reward Pyongyang “for doing nothing to comply with Security Council resolutions.” She accused Pyongyang of depriving North Koreans of needed humanitarian assistance.
Russia and China also again raised nuclear concerns over a security pact known as Aukus that will see Australia develop a nuclear-powered submarine program with the US and Britain.
The US and Britain both rejected their concerns and told the council that Aukus does not violate the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty.
“North Korea’s illegal nuclear and ballistic missile programs violate multiple Council resolutions. So there’s simply no comparison to the Aukus,” Britain’s deputy UN ambassador James Kariuki told the council.