U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the UN Security Council's fresh sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) were just another "very small step."
"We think it's just another very small step, not a big deal," said Trump before meeting with visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
"I don't know if it has any impact," said Trump. "But those sanctions are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen."
The UN Security Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution to impose fresh sanctions on the DPRK over its nuclear test on Sept. 3 for violation of previous Security Council resolutions.
This is the eighth time for the United Nations to slap sanctions on Pyongyang since it carried out the first underground nuclear explosion in 2006.
The new sanctions severely restrict oil imports, and ban all its textile exports worth 800 million U.S. dollars and remittances of some 93,000 DPRK laborers from abroad.
After the vote on the resolution, several ambassadors to the UN said the severity of the sanctions was designed not so much as to hurt the DPRK but help it see negotiations are only way out of the Korean Peninsula nuclear crisis.
"We are now acting to stop it from having the ability to continue doing the wrong thing. We are doing that by hitting North Korea's (DPRK's) ability to fuel and fund its weapons program. Oil is the lifeblood of North Korea's (DPRK's) effort to build and deliver a nuclear weapon," U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said.
"Today's resolution reduces almost 30 percent of oil provided to North Korea (DPRK) by cutting off over 55 percent of its gas, diesel, and heavy fuel oil," the U.S. envoy said. "Further, today's resolution completely bans natural gas and other oil byproducts that could be used as substitutes for the reduced petroleum. This will cut deep."
Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi called for calm as the "situation on the Korean Peninsula remains complex and grave."
"All relevant parties must be cool-headed and avoid rhetoric or action that might aggravate tension," Liu said.
He urged the DPRK to heed the aspirations and will of the international community, abide by relevant Security Council resolutions, refrain from any more missile launches or nuclear tests, and return to the track of denuclearization.
He said that the suspension-for-suspension proposal and dual-track approach put forward by China and the idea of a step-by-step approach proposed by Russia formed a roadmap for the settlement of the issue.
