US takes aim at countries doing business with North Korea

NEW YORK (AP):

The United States said yesterday it would target countries doing business with North Korea as UN Security Council members called for further sanctions in response to the regime's powerful nuclear test.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley said her country would circulate a resolution this week with the goal of getting it approved next Monday.

"The United States will look at every country that does business with North Korea as a country that is giving aid to their reckless and dangerous nuclear intentions," Haley said. "The stakes could not be higher."

Scheduled after North Korea said it detonated a hydrogen bomb underground on Sunday, the emergency session also comes six days after the council strongly condemned Pyongyang's "outrageous" launch of a ballistic missile over Japan. Less than a month ago, the council imposed its stiffest sanctions so far on the reclusive nation.

But the US resolution faces an uncertain future. Russia and China have both proposed a two-pronged approach: North Korea would suspend its nuclear and missile development, and the United States and South Korea would suspend their joint military exercises, which they say are defensive but Pyongyang views as a rehearsal for invasion. The North recently requested a Security Council meeting about the war games.

Washington says there is no comparison between its openly conducted, internationally monitored military drills and North Korea's weapons programme, which the international community has banned.