China and Russia on Thursday vetoed in the UN Security Council a U.S.-proposed resolution imposing new sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launches.

China and Russia on Thursday vetoed in the UN Security Council a U.S.-proposed resolution imposing new sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launches.

The remaining 13 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the text, which provided for a reduction in Pyongyang’s imports of crude and refined oil.

Behind the scenes, several Washington allies lamented its insistence on putting something to a vote knowing in advance that China and Russia would use their veto.

But for the Americans, “it is worse to do nothing” and “let the North Korean tests continue” “without a reaction” than “the scenario of two countries blocking the resolution,” explained an ambassador who requested anonymity.

Ballistic missile launches are “a threat to the peace and security of the entire international community,” U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield had said before the vote.

For his Chinese counterpart, Zhang Jun, Washington’s attitude “moves the Council away from dialogue and reconciliation.” Beijing also does not “believe that new sanctions will help respond to the current situation.”

A coercive UN resolution “will only make the situation worse,” Zhang told the press, expressing Beijing’s “total” disagreement with “any attempt to turn (…) Asia into a battlefield or create confrontations and tensions.”

After insisting that “all provocation must be avoided,” he urged the United States to “resume dialogue with North Korea.”

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the United States of ignoring Pyongyang’s calls to stop “hostile activity” and engage in dialogue.

“It seems that our American and Western colleagues are suffering from the equivalent of writer’s block. They seem to have no response to crisis situations other than introducing new sanctions,” he declared.

Pyongyang stepped up its tests 

The U.S. draft resolution contemplated banning North Korean exports of mineral fuels and watches, and any sale or transfer of tobacco to Pyongyang. The text also sought to intensify the fight against Pyongyang’s cyber activities.

Following the rejection of this draft and the division over the North Korean dossier, the Security Council may have difficulty enforcing the sanctions against Pyongyang imposed in 2017, some diplomats fear.

The Council showed unity back then by adopting economic sanctions against North Korea on three occasions, targeting oil, coal, iron, fishing and textiles, as punishment for its nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

Although Pyongyang has developed its ballistic arsenal and possesses several atomic bombs, it has not yet managed, according to diplomats, to combine the two technologies to field a nuclear-tipped missile.

This week, North Korea carried out new launches, including, perhaps, its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden‘s visit to Asia.

Washington and Seoul have also warned that Pyongyang could soon carry out its seventh nuclear test, the first in five years.

In recent months, the North Korean regime has accelerated its missile tests, blaming the “hostile” attitude of the United States. In March, it tested an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time since 2017.

Washington has made clear its willingness to talk with North Korea after the failure of the 2019 summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-President Donald Trump, but so far, the North Korean regime has ignored all of Washington’s offers of dialogue.