U.S. wants UN Security coUNcil vote on North Korea sanctions

The United States would like the UN Security Council to vote on May to sanction North Korea over its renewed ballistic missile launches, the U.S. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Ambassador to the United Nations, said Tuesday.

The United States released an initial draft resolution to the 15-member council last month that proposed banning tobacco and halving oil exports to North Korea and blacklisting the Lazarus hacking group.

Russia and China have already signaled opposition to boosting sanctions in response to Pyongyang's March launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile - its first since 2017. A resolution to the Security Council needs nine yes votes to pass, without a veto by Russia, China, France, Britain or the United States.

Thomas-Greenfield told reporters that it was our plan to move forward with that resolution during this month. The United States is the president of the Security Council for May.Security Council for May.

Thomas-Greenfield said we are very concerned about the situation. It is our hope that the council can keep its focus on condemning the actions by the DPRK North Korea since 2006, which has been subject to U.N. sanctions since 2006, which has been stepped up over the years in a bid to cut off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Independent U.N. sanctions said in February that North Korean cyberattacks on cryptocurrencies exchanges were earning Pyongyang hundreds of millions of dollars, despite the hermit Asian state's efforts to evade U.N. sanctions.