The United States and China have reached an agreement on a new United Nations Security Council draft resolution aimed at punishing North Korea in the wake of its recent nuclear test and for violating previous resolutions, a Security Council diplomat told CNN on Wednesday.
The resolution is going to be described as the toughest yet on Pyongyang.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, will submit the draft sanctions to the Security Council on Thursday, said Kurtis Cooper, the acting spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the UN.
“We hope and believe this resolution will curb the further development of nuclear missiles in the DPRK,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters. “China is willing to work with relevant parties to promote denuclearization of the peninsula.”
The text of the draft is not yet available but the document will likely be voted in by the full Security Council “in a couple of days,” once other nations have an opportunity to weigh in on the language, according to the diplomat.
“There were a significant number of blockage points between the (United States and China) … but there is an agreement between those two countries,” the diplomat said.
In January, Pyongyang claimed to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb in its fourth nuclear test.
U.S. officials were initially skeptical of the claim, but later assessed that there may have been a partial, failed test of some type of components associated with a hydrogen bomb.
Then on February 7, Pyongyang said it had successfully launched an Earth satellite into orbit via the long-range Kwangmyongsong carrier rocket. Both the test and the launch were carried out in defiance of international sanctions.
Also Wednesday, National Security Adviser Susan Rice met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the White House.
They agreed “on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea’s provocations, including through a U.N. Security Council Resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions,” read a statement from National Security Council spokesman Ned Price. “They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state.”