The China-Russia Draft Resolution is aimed at deescalating the tensions between United States (U.S.) and North Korea.
The People’s Republic of China and Russia have proposed a Draft Resolution to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to lift a ban on North Korea exporting statues, seafood and textiles.
The China-Russia Draft Resolution is aimed at deescalating the tensions between United States (U.S.) and North Korea. The draft also requests for lifting of the ban on the North Koreans who are working abroad and the termination of a 2017 requirement for all such workers to be repatriated by next week. Besides, the draft also urges to exempt Inter-Korean Rail and Road Cooperation projects from U.N. sanctions.
These industries mentioned in the Draft for which China and Russia have proposed lifting of sanctions, have given hundreds of billions to North Korea in the past. These sanctions were imposed in 2016.
The draft resolution urges that ban should be lifted as it is impacting the livelihood of civilians. Before the sanctions, Pyongyang was famous for building huge, socialist-style statues, which it exported mainly to African countries. It is reported that North Korea had made tens of millions of dollars selling such statues.
According to the data by Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, in 2016, textiles were North Korea’s 2nd largest export industry after coal and minerals, totalling upto U.S. $ 752 million. Of this, 80% of the textile was exported to China.
The draft also calls for the so-called 6-party talks between North Korea, South Korea, China, U.S., Russia and Japan to be resumed. The 6-party talks began in 2003 and led Pyongyang to accept a deal in September 2005. As per the deal, North Korea must end its nuclear weapons program in exchange for security, economic and energy benefits. But after difficult negotiations, North Korea refused to accept U.S.-proposed verification methods, and the agreement fell through in December 2008. The six-party talks have been stalled since then.
The China-Russia Draft Resolution read, “that all parties should commit to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”
If the draft is put to vote to a 15 member UNSC, it would require 9 votes in favour without any veto from U.S., France, Britain, Russia and China. The U.S. is of the view that this is not the right time to lift the sanctions. The U.S., Britain and France have insisted that no sanctions should be lifted unless North Korea completely gives away its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Pyongyang has been subject to U.N. sanctions because of those programs since 2006.
The U.S. opined that North Korea is “threatening to conduct an escalated provocation, refusing to meet to discuss denuclearization and continuing to maintain and advance its prohibited weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.
Since May 2019, North Korea has carried out 13 ballistic missile launches to pressurise U.S. It has also given a deadline of December 31, 2019 to U.S. to make concessions on sanctions or else it would be forced to choose an unspecified “new path”.
For the records, The Supreme Leader of North Korea – Kim Jong Un and President of U.S. – Donald Trump have met thrice since 2018 but no deal has been finalised. In a historic move, Kim Jong-un had also met Donald Trump on June 30, 2019 at Panmunjom, the ‘truce village’ on the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which separates North and South Korea. During the meeting, both the leaders had agreed to resume denuclearisation talks which were halted after the failed meeting at Hanoi in Vietnam in February 2019. But nothing concrete has happened since that meeting. Donald Trump is the first sitting U.S. President to set foot in North Korea.
