The United States and China reached a deal that “significantly expands” UN sanctions on North Korea for its third nuclear test, eliciting a renewed threat by Pyongyang yesterday to scrap an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

A strong signal must be sent out that a nuclear test is against the will of the international community

China’s UN ambassador, Li Baodong, told Reuters the 15-nation council was aiming for a Thursday vote on a draft sanctions resolution, which was agreed to by Washington and Beijing after three weeks of negotiations.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said after a closed-door meeting of the Security Council that the new draft resolution “builds up, strengthens and significantly expands the scope of the strong UN sanctions already in place”.

“The sanctions contained in this resolution will significantly impede the ability of North Korea to develop further its illicit nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” she said.

The Chinese envoy made clear that Beijing was displeased by North Korea’s February 12 nuclear test – its third since 2006 – though he cautioned against responding too harshly.

“We support action taken by the council, but we think that action should be proportionate, should be balanced and focused on bringing down the tension and focusing on the diplomatic track,” Li said.

“A strong signal must be sent out that a nuclear test is against the will of the international community,” he added.

North Korea’s previous nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, prompted the Security Council to impose sanctions that included a ban on the import of nuclear and missile technology, an arms embargo and a ban on luxury goods imports.

Rice gave some of specifics of the draft resolution.

“For the first time ever, this resolution targets the illicit activities of North Korean diplomatic personnel, North Korean banking relationships, (and) illicit transfers of bulk cash,” Rice said after the council’s closed-door meeting.

“North Korea will be subject to some of the toughest sanctions imposed by the UN,” she told reporters.

“The breadth and scope of these sanctions is excep-tional and demonstrates the strength of the international community’s commitment to de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.”

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin was quoted by Russian media as saying Moscow welcomed the fact that the draft resolution leaves the door open to a renewal of the stalled six-party aid-for-disarmament talks between the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

Developments in New York led to a new volley of bellicose rhetoric from Pyongyang.

In addition to scrapping the armistice, North Korea said it would sever a military “hotline” with the United States if South Korea and Washington pressed on with two-month-long war games.

“We will completely nullify the Korean armistice,” the North’s KCNA news agency said, quoting the Korean People’s Army Supreme Command spokesman.

The spokesman called the military exercise “a systematic act of destruction aimed at the Korean armistice”.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.

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