Spotlight: UN Security Council divided over new sanctions against DPRK

Photo taken on Sept. 4, 2017 shows the United Nations Security Council holding an emergency meeting on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's nuclear test at the UN headquarters in New York. Several members of the U.N. Security Council have demanded firm reaction to the latest nuclear test by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Members of the UN Security Council remained divided on Monday over possible new sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) over its latest nuclear test.

In an emergency meeting of the Security Council Monday, the United States, France and Britain as well as Japan were in favor of new sanctions, while countries like Russia advised diplomacy.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, called for "strongest possible measures" by the council against the DPRK. "The time has come to exhaust all diplomatic means to end this crisis, that means quickly enacting the strongest possible measures here in the UN Security Council," Haley told the council meeting that she had requested together with representatives of Britain, France, Japan and South Korea.

"Only the strongest sanctions will enable us to resolve the problem through diplomacy," said Haley. "We have taken an incremental approach, and despite the best intentions, it has not worked."

Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia cautioned that past failure of the council to curb DPRK's nuclear and missile programs was owing to the fact that the resolutions "were only geared toward leveraging sanctions mechanisms."

"Russia calls on the international community not to yield to emotions, (but) to act in calm and balanced ways," he told the same meeting, adding that a comprehensive settlement can be achieved only through political and diplomatic channels.

French ambassador to the United Nations Francois Delattre called for the adoption of new sanctions by the Security Council, plus autonomous sanctions by the European Union.

He said the threat from the DPRK has changed both in dimension and nature. It has changed from regional to global, from virtual to immanent, from serious to existential.

Japanese envoy Koro Bessho said: "Japan stresses the need for the council to adopt swiftly a new resolution with further robust sanction measures."

China's permanent representative to the United Nations, Liu Jieyi, condemned the DPRK for the latest nuclear test and urged the country to return to the track of dialogue. China will not allow chaos and war on the Korean Peninsula, he said.

The envoy said the suspension-for-suspension proposal and dual-track approach put forward by China together with the Russian proposal of a step-by-step approach is a realistic and feasible roadmap for the settlement of the issue, asking the relevant parties for due consideration and positive responses.

The idea of dual approach involves parallel efforts to move forward both de-nuclearization and the establishment of a peaceful mechanism on the peninsula; the initiative of suspension-for-suspension calls for the DPRK to suspend its nuclear and missile activities and for the United States and South Korea to suspend their large-scale war games.

At the end of the emergency meeting Haley said her mission was circulating a draft resolution on the DPRK among council members.

The DPRK Sunday detonated a hydrogen bomb that can be carried by an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), DPRK's Central Television announced.

DPRK's nuclear testing and launches using ballistic missile technology violate UN Security Council resolutions.

Sunday's nuclear test was within a week of UN Security Council condemnation of Pyongyang's ballistic missile launch on Aug. 28.