U.S., China Agree on Tougher Sanctions for North Korea

The United States and China have finally arrived at an agreement to impose new and tougher sanctions on North Korea after the country carried out its fourth nuclear test and launched a rocket despite opposition, United Nations diplomats said.

The U.S. will be submitting a draft to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday when council members are scheduled to meet and discuss how they will respond to North Korea's actions. The closed meeting will begin at 2 p.m. ET.

"Ambassador (Samantha) Power intends to submit for consideration by the Security Council a draft sanctions resolution in response to (North Korea's) recent nuclear test and subsequent proscribed ballistic missile launch," spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in a statement reported by Reuters. "We look forward to working with the council on a strong and comprehensive response to the DPRK's (Democratic People's Republic of Korea's) latest series of tests aimed at advancing their nuclear weapons program."

The U.S. and China, the only superpower ally that North Korea has, have been working on the resolution for the past seven weeks. Although both parties did not immediately agree on what kind of sanctions they should enforce on North Korea, both agreed that the country must not be nuclearized.

Ned Price, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who met on Wednesday, agreed "on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through a U.N. Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions. They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state."

The resolution will reportedly call for several individuals and entities to be blacklisted. Two of the entities will include the country's Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry and its National Aerospace Development Agency (NADA), which was responsible for the missile launch, according to Yonhap News.

"We hope and believe this new resolution can help effectively constrain North Korea from further developing its nuclear missile program," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

Prior to the resolution announcement, North Korea issued a statement via the state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmunm, threatening to pulverize the U.S. and South Korea for preparing to conduct numerous military drills.

"The situation came to a point where (the joint drills) dare to target our revolutionary leadership," the statement said reported by Yonhap (via Koreaherald.com). "Let's turn Seoul and Washington into a sea of fire."

The statement added, according to South Korea's News 1, "How dare they try to hide the dazzling sun [Workers' Party Secretary Kim Jong Un], our destiny, humanity's destiny. Let us make 10 million missiles that would turn South Korea's presidential Blue House and the United States into powder."

The resolution will be put to a vote within the coming days.