Russia and China defended their vetoes at the General Assembly meeting on Wednesday against a proposal that would have imposed new sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program.
The US expanded sanctions against Pyongyang after it launched a series of ballistic missiles, but the proposal failed because China and Russia vetoed the sanctions, as they are from the five permanent members of the Council, and they all have the power to "veto" any action.
In April, the general assembly voted for examining any veto wielded in the Security Council by one of its five permanent members in the future.
France, The United Kingdom, The United States are the other countries that have the right to veto; the UK and France did not use the veto for decades.
Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun told other diplomats that the US trying to raise tensions in North Korea would not achieve anything; instead, he indicated that the US should lift the sanctions.
A Russian representative said that imposing sanctions is not the way to get North Korea to the negotiating table.
On Sunday, North Korea fired eight short-range missiles in what appeared to be a single-day record for the country’s ballistic launches. It was the reclusive north Asian country’s 18th round of missile tests in 2022 that included its first launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles in nearly five years.
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