China, Russia Block US Effort To Sanction North Korea At UN

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What has happened?

China and Russia have delayed a US effort at the United Nations to impose sanctions on five North Koreans in response to recent missile launches by Pyongyang, diplomats said.
The move by Beijing and Moscow came before a closed-door UN Security Council meeting on North Korea on Thursday – the second in two weeks – after Pyongyang fired tactical guided missiles this week.
Along with Beijing, Moscow has long held a line against increasing pressure on North Korea, even asking for relief from international sanctions for humanitarian reasons.

Last week, after Washington levied sanctions on five North Koreans linked to the country’s ballistic missile program,
The United States undertook a campaign within the 15-member Security Council to extend UN sanctions to those same five people.
The request had to be agreed by consensus by the Security Council’s 15-member North Korea sanctions committee.
The US Treasury Department said one of the North Koreans, Choe Myong Hyon, was based in Russia and had provided support to North Korea’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS), which is already subject to sanctions.
Also targeted were four China-based North Korean representatives of SANS-subordinate organizations, the Treasury Department said: Sim Kwang Sok, Kim Song Hun, Kang Chol Hak, and Pyon Kwang Chol.
China and Russia, however, placed a “hold” on the United States’s proposal on Thursday, which puts it in limbo.

The United States quickly expressed its displeasure at the block.
Washington has accused all five North Koreans of ties to the country’s weapons program, and On Thursday the US envoy to the United Nations warned that failing to mete out sanctions equated to a “blank check” for Pyongyang.
“We have these sanctions for a reason,” ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said when asked about the Beijing and Moscow opposition.
“And for any member state to oppose putting sanctions… gives, in my view, the DPRK a blank check,” she said, using an acronym for North Korea.

China told council colleagues it needed more time to study the sanctions,
While Russia said more evidence was needed to back the US request, the diplomats said.
Under current UN rules, the block period can last for six months.
After that, another council member can extend the block for three more months, before the proposal is permanently removed from the negotiating table.

North Korea has launched a series of missile tests, asserting its “legitimate right” to self-defense.
Monday’s test was North Korea’s fourth so far this year, with two previous launches involving “hypersonic missiles” capable of high speed and manoeuvring after liftoff, and another test last Friday using a pair of short-range missiles fired from train cars.
Thursday’s Security Council meeting on North Korea, the second in 11 days, was devoted to discussing a “response to the latest tests,” according to Thomas-Greenfield.

Last week, failing to reach consensus for a unanimous statement at the Security Council’s first meeting after North Korea conducted a hypersonic missile launch test,
The United States, Albania, France, Ireland and Britain, along with Japan, had jointly called on Pyongyang to refrain from any further destabilizing action.
It responded with more missile tests.
On Thursday the same six countries, joined by new council members Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, issued a joint statement urging fellow members to be “unified in condemning the DPRK.”

Nuclear-armed Pyongyang is banned from testing ballistic weapons by the UN,
But denuclearisation talks have been stalled since 2019 when a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-US President Donald Trump collapsed over North Korea’s demands for sanctions relief.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has sought unsuccessfully to re-engage Pyongyang in dialogue to persuade it to give up its nuclear weapons and missiles.
But Kim has refused new talks with the US and warned North Korea would restart weapons development activities it had previously paused.
The North Korean leader, who took power 10 years ago, has sought to modernise the military and says more advanced weapons are necessary for the country’s self-defence.
The powerful politburo of North Korea’s ruling party, presided over by leader Kim, said during a meeting on Wednesday that it would reconsider resuming “all temporarily suspended” nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in light of “hostile” US actions.

Q) Which of the following is not a chief organ of the Unted Nations Organisation?