UNITED NATIONS (Dispatches) -- Russia and China on Thursday blocked a U.S. request to add a Russian bank to a UN sanctions blacklist along with a North Korean official and two entities, diplomats said.
The United States last week asked a UN sanctions committee to slap an assets freeze on Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank for allegedly helping North Korea evade UN-imposed restrictions on financial transactions.
The request also targeted Ri Jong Won, the deputy representative of North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank and two North Korean front companies.
In a response to the council, Russia raised doubts about the allegations while China told the council that it objected to the proposed sanctions designations put forward by the United States.
"We would like to underline that designation requests submitted to the committee should be adequately substantiated by sufficient information," said the Russian mission to the United Nations in a message to the council seen by AFP.
The request followed a U.S. Treasury Department decision to impose unilateral sanctions on the Russian bank, the North Korean official and the two entities.
Russia and China have called on the Security Council to consider easing sanctions to reward North Korea for opening up dialogue with the United States and halting missile tests.
But the United States has called for maintaining "maximum pressure" from sanctions until North Korea has fully dismantled its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Earlier Thursday, the North Korean foreign ministry issued an angry statement, denouncing the United States for responding to its overtures by "inciting international sanctions and pressure."
The statement said that "some high-level officials within the U.S. administration” were making "desperate attempts at intensifying the international sanctions and pressure.”
"We hoped that these goodwill measures would contribute to breaking down the high barrier of mistrust” between Pyongyang and Washington, the North’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. "However, the U.S. responded to our expectation by inciting international sanctions and pressure.”
The council last year adopted three rafts of sanctions targeting North Korea's economy through export and import bans, as well as restrictions on banking.
It was the second time in three weeks that Russia and China have objected to a U.S. request to tighten sanctions on North Korea.
On July 19, the two countries put a six-month hold on a U.S. request to halt all deliveries of refined oil products to North Korea.
UN sanctions resolutions place a ceiling for North Korea of 500,000 barrels of refined oil products per year and four million barrels of crude.