UN set for vote after US softens North Korea sanctions

The UN Security Council will vote on Monday on a draft resolution imposing new sanctions on North Korea after the United States toned down its demands in a bid to win support from Russia and China.

Washington has led the international drive to punish the rogue state after it detonated its sixth and most powerful nuclear device. The United had originally pushed for a strict oil embargo, as well as a freeze on the foreign assets of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. A new draft text circulated late yesterday maintains an embargo on natural gas but would limit deliveries of refined oil to 5,00,000 barrels for three months from October 1 and 2 million barrels from January 1 for a period of 12 months, according to the text obtained by AFP.

Crude oil supplies would be capped at their current level.

The United States dropped demands that Kim be added to a UN sanctions blacklist, hitting the North Korean leader with an assets freeze and global travel ban.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft described the revised draft as "very robust" and suggested that the changes were aimed at averting a possible veto from Russia or China.