The United Nations Security Council has delayed a vote on a US-Chinese drafted resolution that would dramatically expand UN sanctions on North Korea after Russia said it needed more time to review the text.
The vote, which had been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, is now planned for 10am on Wednesday (0200 AEDT on Thursday), the diplomats said on condition of anonymity.
"Subsequent to the United States' request ... to schedule a council vote for this afternoon, Russia invoked a procedural 24-hour review of the resolution, so the vote will be on Wednesday," the US mission to the United Nations said in a statement to reporters on Tuesday.
The expanded sanctions, if adopted, would require inspections of all cargo going to and from North Korea and blacklisting North Koreans active in Syria, Iran and Vietnam.
After nearly two months of bilateral negotiations, which at one point involved US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, China agreed to support the unusually tough measures intended to persuade its close ally North Korea to abandon its atomic weapons program.
Last week the United States presented the 15-nation council with the draft resolution that would significantly tighten restrictions after North Korea's nuclear test and February 7 rocket launch, and create what it described as the toughest UN sanctions regime in two decades.
Pyongyang denied the launch involved banned ballistic missile technology, saying it was a peaceful satellite launch.
The official North Korean news agency KCNA said in a commentary on Monday its "position as a satellite manufacturer and launcher will never change (and) ... space development is not something to be given up because of someone's 'sanctions'".
It called the proposed sanctions "a wanton infringement on (North Korea's) sovereignty and grave challenge to it".
