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The United States has submitted a new Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s sanctions resolution to the UN Security Council, toning down its demands less than 24 hours before a vote, diplomats say.
The Security Council is set to vote Monday on the US-led effort to impose harsher new sanctions against DPRK, which has defied multiple measures to rein in its weapons programme
Washington has led the international drive to punish the rogue state after it detonated a nuclear device this month.
The US had originally pushed for a strict oil embargo, as well as a freeze on the assets of DPRK's leader Kim Jong-Un.
But late Sunday, diplomats said the asset freeze had been dropped from the draft, and it now foresaw a progressive tightening of the oil taps, instead of something sudden and complete.
Among other concessions the new text also softens proposed restrictions on DPRK people working overseas, and on the inspection by force of ships suspected of carrying cargo prohibited by the UN.
Of five key original measures, a ban on textile exports from DPRK remained.
Britain and France -- permanent Security Council members along with the US, China and Russia -- have given Washington their unequivocal backing.
Francois Delattre, the French ambassador to the UN, told AFP: "Maximum pressure today in the form of sanctions is our best hope for promoting a political settlement tomorrow and the best antidote to risks of confrontation."
His British counterpart Matthew Rycroft added: "To give a chance for diplomacy to end this crisis, we need DPRK to change course now. That means the maximum possible pressure."
Washington has dangled the prospect of military action or cutting economic ties with countries that continue to have trade links with DPRK.
'Pay the price'
Early Monday,DPRK said it would not accept any chastisement over its nuclear and missile programme, which it says is vital to stave off the threat of an American invasion.
If Washington does "rig up the illegal and unlawful 'resolution' on harsher sanctions, the DPRK shall make absolutely sure that the US pays due price," its foreign ministry said, in a statement published by the official KCNA news agency.
DPRK has a long history of making florid threats against Washington and its allies without following through on them.
"The forthcoming measures to be taken by the DPRK will cause the US the greatest pain and suffering it had ever gone through in its entire history," the ministry said.
"The world will witness how the DPRK tames the US gangsters by taking (a) series of action tougher than they have ever envisaged."
The United States and its allies have been angered by DPRK's nuclear and missile test, but they have been greeted with joy in Pyongyang where the military held a mass rally in honour of atomic scientists
Pyongyang has staged a series of missile tests in recent months, culminating in an intercontinental ballistic missile that appeared to bring much of the US mainland into range -- ramping up tensions and earning itself a seventh set of UN Security Council sanctions.
It followed up earlier this month with a sixth nuclear test, which it said was a hydrogen bomb small enough to fit onto a missile.
That September 3 detonation was the country's largest to date and prompted global outrage.
Monday's expected vote is seen as a key test of resolve for the council, who united last month to adopt a resolution intended to reduce the impoverished country's export earnings by up to a billion dollars.
(AFP)
