UNITED NATIONS, May 26 (Reuters) - China and Russia on Thursday vetoed pressure from the United Nations to impose more sanctions on North Korea for launching a new ballistic missile, led by the United States, after publicly splitting the UN Security Council. Pyongyang in 2006. The remaining 13 council members voted in favor of a draft US proposal to ban North Korea's tobacco and oil exports, led by Kim Jong-Un, a chain smoker. It also blacklisted the Lazarus hacking group, which the United States has linked to North Korea. The vote comes a day after US President Joe Biden's visit to Asia, when North Korea fired three missiles, including one of its largest intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). It was the latest in a string of ballistic missile launches this year that have been banned by the Security Council. US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield described the vote as a "disappointing day" for the council. "The world is facing a clear and current threat from the DPRK (North Korea)," she told the council. "The council's restraint and silence have not diminished or diminished the threat. If anything, the DPRK has been encouraged." She said Washington had evaluated North Korea launching six ICBMs this year and was "actively preparing to conduct nuclear tests." Over the past 16 years, the Security Council has consistently and unanimously increased sanctions to cut funding for Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. It last imposed strict sanctions on Pyongyang in 2017. Since then, China and Russia have been pushing for an easing of sanctions on humanitarian grounds. While they have delayed some action behind closed doors in the Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee, the vote on the resolution on Thursday was the first time they have publicly broken unanimity. "The introduction of new sanctions against the DPRK (North Korea) is a path to a dead-end," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassal Nebenzia told the council. "We have stressed the ineffectiveness and the inhumanity of further strengthening the sanctions pressure on Pyongyang." China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said that additional sanctions against North Korea would not help and would only lead to more "negative effects and escalation of confrontation." "The situation on the Peninsula has developed to what it is today thanks primarily to the flip-flop U.S. policies and failure to uphold the results of previous dialogues," he told the council. China has been urging the United States to take action - including lifting some unilateral sanctions - to entice Pyongyang to resume talks stalled since 2019, after three failed summits between Kim and then-U.S. President Donald Trump. The United States has said Pyongyang should not be rewarded. The U.N. The General Assembly will now discuss North Korea in the next two weeks under a new rule requiring the 193-member body to meet every time a veto is cast in the Security Council by one of the five permanent members - Russia, China, the United States, France, and Britain.
A man walks past a TV broadcasting a news report on North Korea's launch of three missiles including one thought to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, (ICBM), in Seoul, South Korea, on May 25, 2022. REUTERS / Kim Hong-Jiong
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