China and Russia on Wednesday accused the United States of fueling tensions on the Korean peninsula, in the first-ever debate held at the UN General Assembly to the 193 members of the organization for countries that exercise their veto power in the Security Council.

Beijing and Moscow blocked a US draft resolution at the Security Council on May 26 calling for new sanctions on North Korea in retaliation for multiple ballistic missile launches since the start of the year.

China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, said Washington “doesn’t have an adequate response” to Pyongyang, continuing its “pressure speech”. He added that tensions on the peninsula “are mainly driven by the United States” before advocating easing of sanctions against the North Korean government.

Russian Deputy Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva also called for “the lifting of sanctions”. She said that north Korea needs more humanitarian assistance and that the West should stop blaming Pyongyang for tensions.

On behalf of the United States, Deputy Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis denied these allegations. The sanctions and proposals to tighten them are a response to North Korea’s behavior, he said.

North Korea’s ambassador to the UN, Kim Song, justified his country’s military nuclear tests, stressing that the United Nations Charter “explicitly provides for the right of each country, individually or collectively, to guarantee its own defense”.