Russian and Chinese opposition to the original draft of the sanctions resolution threatened to derail the proposal.
North Korea was slapped with a new round of sanctions by the United Nations Security Council in response to the regime’s latest nuclear weapons test.
Ambassador Nikki Haley, the top U. S. diplomat at the UN, led the push for an aggressive sanctions package over the last week.
« We are done trying to prod the regime from doing the right thing, » Haley said. « We are now trying to stop it from having the ability to do the wrong thing. »
Russian and Chinese opposition to the original draft of the sanctions resolution threatened to derail the proposal, but the U. S. and other allies salvaged the process by watering down some of the toughest provisions to avoid a veto of the resolution.
» [I] t is a very significant set of additional sanctions on imports into North Korea and on exports out of North Korea and other measures as well, » Matthew Rycroft, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the UN, told reporters ahead of Monday evening’s vote.
