Senior U.S. government officials have urged members of the United Nations Security Council to ban the sales of oil and other fuel products to North Korea as part of efforts to help deter the country’s nuclear weapons development and test efforts, The New York Times reported Monday.
The U.S. is in private talks with the council to include fuel-related sanctions in a draft resolution and called for the implementation of such policy after North Korea tested a hydrogen bomb under the ground.
“Despite our efforts over the past 24 years, the North Korean nuclear program is more advanced and more dangerous than ever,” said Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the UN.
“We have taken an incremental approach… and despite the best of intentions, it has not worked,” Haley added.
Defense Secretary James Mattis said in a statement published Sunday that he and other Defense Department officials held a small group national security meeting with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to address provocations on the Korean peninsula.
Mattis noted that all United Nations Security Council members unanimously committed to support international denuclearization efforts in the region.
“Any threat to the United States, or its territories – including Guam – or our allies will be met with a massive military response,” he added.