The United States and China have agreed on a U.N. resolution on North Korea, the White House said Wednesday, with reports speculating that the new expanded sanctions would call for blacklisting three key state agencies overseeing Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.

U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed during a meeting “on the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea’s provocations, including through a U.N. Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions,” the White House said in a statement.

“They agreed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state,” said the statement from National Security Council spokesman Ned Price.

U.S. President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance at the meeting “to underscore his interest in building a durable, constructive and productive U.S.-China relationship” and that the U.S. leader looked forward to welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping to a March 31-April 1 nuclear security summit in Washington and “working together towards its success.”

The White House statement came as diplomats at the U.N. headquarters in New York said Washington and Beijing had agreed on a draft resolution imposing fresh sanctions on North Korea and the Security Council could vote on the measure in the coming days.

The United States circulated the draft text to the other three permanent council members -- Britain, France and Russia -- Wednesday and is set to formally present it to the full 15-member council soon, said the diplomats, who asked not to be named.

“There is good progress on the resolution and we are hopeful that there will be an adoption in the coming days,” a council diplomat said. 

Sources in Seoul said that the draft calls for the blacklisting of three key state agencies that oversee Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs as well as espionage operations.

The agencies -- the General Reconnaissance Bureau, the Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry and the National Aerospace Development Administration -- are among about 30 individuals and entities to be sanctioned by the new resolution, according to the sources.

Also to be blacklisted are North Korean trading and financial firms involved in illicit activities, they said.

The General Reconnaissance Bureau, which was established in 2009 from the merger of similar intelligence agencies, has been accused of masterminding a series of provocations, including the 2010 torpedoing of a South Korean warship and the 2014 cyberattacks on Sony Pictures.
The U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on it in January last year for the hacking attacks, but the agency has not been sanctioned by the Security Council.

The Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry and the National Aerospace Development Administration are in charge of the North’s nuclear weapons development and its long-range ballistic missile program, respectively. A U.N. panel of experts has recommended adding them to the sanctions list.
Negotiations on the draft resolution began six weeks ago after North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and claimed it was a thermonuclear device.

A council diplomat described the draft resolution as a “significantly substantive text” while another diplomat said it contained “a large number of very tough measures,” as well as names to be added to the sanctions black list.

Among the toughest measures, the United States has been pushing for a ban on North Korean ships in all ports, but that was met with strong resistance from China.

Beijing has been reluctant towards backbiting sanctions that take aim at North Korea’s already weak economy, due to concerns that the isolated state could collapse, unleashing chaos on China’s border.

The council has imposed four sets of sanctions on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006.

(From news reports)