U.S. President Barack Obama will stress the importance of holding North Korea accountable for its nuclear test when he delivers his last speech at the U.N. General Assembly this week, a senior aide said.
Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser at the White House, said during a conference call briefing for reporters that Obama will speak to the issue of North Korea in the context of nonproliferation during the address set for Tuesday, according to a transcript of the call.
"This is not simply a bilateral concern of the United States. What North Korea is doing is violating a fundamental international norm against the proliferation and testing and development of nuclear weapons in violation of various U.N. Security Council resolutions, as well as international law," Rhodes said.
"In addition to just speaking to the North Korean issue, I think he'll be laying out why efforts to strengthen the norm against testing are important; why it's important to hold countries accountable when they do violate international law, international norms," he said.
This year's General Assembly is taking place as the U.N. Security Council is working on fresh sanctions on the North for its fifth nuclear test amid questions about whether China, the North's last-remaining major ally, will back fresh sanctions on Pyongyang.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said China should use its leverage over the North.
"It's no secret that the United States is going to enforce that resolution to the T, but for it be effective, as we saw in the case of Iran, all countries need to step forward, and particularly those with significant influence and significant ties with North Korea," Power said.
"I just want to underscore that speaking about U.S. approaches entails also one feature of that approach, which is getting other countries to step up, and not to just sit back and expect the United States to deal single-handedly with threats of that magnitude when other countries have significant influence," she said.
Cooperation from China is key to putting together any meaningful punishment for the North as it is one of the five veto-holding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the main provider of food and fuel to the impoverished North.
China, the North's last-remaining major ally, has been reluctant to use its influence over Pyongyang for fear that pushing the regime too hard could result in instability in the North and hurt Chinese national interests.
Analysts say that China often increased pressure on the North in the past, especially when Pyongyang defied international appeals and carried out nuclear tests and other provocative acts, but China never went as far as to cause real pain to the North. (Yonhap)