US Calls for UN Vote on New North Korea Sanctions

The United States has formally requested the U.N. Security Council to vote on Monday on a draft resolution that would impose additional sanctions on North Korea, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK, for its missile and nuclear program. 

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Washington wants the Security Council to impose an oil embargo on the DPRK, ban its exports of textiles and the hiring of laborers abroad and to subject leader Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters.

"This evening, the United States informed the UN Security Council that it intends to call a meeting to vote on a draft resolution to establish additional sanctions on North Korea on Monday, September 11," the U.S. Mission to the United Nations said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear which version of the text would be voted on and how DPRK allies China and Russia would vote. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that it was too early to draw conclusions about the final form of the U.N. resolution, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying at a news conference on Friday.

A Security Council resolution needs nine votes from the 15 Security Council members in favor and no vetoes by permanent members Britain, the United States, France, Russia or China to pass.

A senior U.S. official said on Friday night that Russia and China may oppose the measures as a whole, except for the ban on imports of DPRK textiles.

The DPRK conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sunday, saying it was a hydrogen bomb that could be fitted onto a missile. 

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It also tested a string of missiles this year, including one flying over Japan and two intercontinental ballistic missiles, ICBMs, that appeared to bring much of the mainland U.S. into range.

The United States said it wants tougher sanctions to be imposed to "maximize pressure" on Pyongyang in order to end its nuclear and missile programs. 

But Chinese officials have privately expressed fears that imposing an oil embargo could risk triggering massive instability in its neighbor.

On Thursday, the DPRK pledged to take "powerful counter measures" to respond to U.S. pressure or any new sanctions against it. 

"We will respond to the barbaric plotting around sanctions and pressure by the United States with powerful counter measures of our own," Pyongyang said in a statement by its delegation to an economic forum in Vladivostok, Russia.