The United States distributed the project to the fifteen member states of the Security Council this week.
It was not immediately clear if or when it might be put to a vote. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no veto by Russia, China, France, Britain or the United States.
Russia and China have already indicated their opposition to tougher sanctions in response to Pyongyang’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile last month, its first since 2017.
US special envoy to North Korea Sung Kim told reporters last week that the United States had discussed the text of the draft resolution with China and Russia, but “unfortunately, I cannot report that we have had productive discussions with them so far.”
US and South Korean officials and analysts said there were also increasing indications that North Korea might soon test a nuclear weapon for the first time since 2017.
The draft resolution drafted by the United States would expand a ban on launching ballistic missiles to include cruise missiles or “any other launch system capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”
It also stipulates halving crude oil exports to North Korea to two million barrels annually, and halving refined oil exports to 250 thousand barrels.
It also seeks to ban North Korea’s exports of “mineral fuels, mineral oils and their distillation products.”
The draft resolution seeks to ban the export of tobacco and manufactured tobacco to North Korea.
North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006, and the UN Security Council has unanimously and steadily intensified them over the years in an effort to cut off funding for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
Lazoros intruders
The council last tightened sanctions on Pyongyang in 2017, but since then Beijing and Moscow have pushed for the measures to be eased on humanitarian grounds.
The United States and its allies say Kim is responsible for the humanitarian situation in his country, and accuse him of diverting money to nuclear weapons and missile programs rather than spending it on his own people.
North Korea has successfully evaded some UN sanctions and continued to develop its software, according to independent UN sanctions monitors, who said in February that Pyongyang was making hundreds of millions of dollars from its cyberattacks on cryptocurrency exchanges.
The draft resolution would freeze the assets of the Lazarus hacking group, a group the United States says is under the management of the General Office of Reconnaissance, North Korea’s main intelligence office.
The Lazarus Group is accused of being involved in the WannaCry ransomware attacks, hacking international banks and customer accounts, and cyberattacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014.
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