(Adds details on blacklisted North Korean entities, paragraphs 3, 9-14)
By Michelle Nichols and James Pearson
UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL, June 1 (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council will vote on Friday on a U.S. and Chinese proposal to blacklist more North Korean individuals and entities after the country's repeated ballistic missile launches, diplomats said on Thursday.
The draft resolution, seen by Reuters, would sanction four entities, including the Koryo Bank and Strategic Rocket Force of the Korean People's Army, and 14 people, including Cho Il U, who is believed to head North Korea's overseas spying operations.
If adopted, they would be subject to a global asset freeze and travel ban, making the listings more symbolic given the isolated nature of official North Korean entities and the sophisticated network of front companies used by Pyongyang to evade current sanctions.
It is the first Security Council sanctions resolution on North Korea agreed between the United States and China since President Donald Trump took office in January.
The measures could have been agreed by the council's North Korea sanctions committee behind closed doors, but a public vote would amplify the body's anger at Pyongyang's defiance of a U.N. ban on ballistic missile launches.
The United States had been negotiating with China, Pyongyang's sole major diplomatic ally, for five weeks on possible new sanctions. The pair reached agreement and circulated the draft resolution to the remaining 13 council members on Thursday.
It was not immediately clear if council veto power Russia would support the draft resolution after the United States imposed its own sanctions on Thursday on two Russian firms for their support of North Korea's weapons programmes.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow was puzzled and alarmed by the U.S. decision and that Russia was preparing retaliatory measures, Russian media reported.
While Russia has not indicated it would oppose U.N. sanctions or seek to dilute them, its ties with the United States are fraught and that could complicate its joining any U.S.-led initiative on North Korea.
There is no sign of any sustainable increase in trade between Russia and North Korea, but business and transport links between the two are getting busier.
BANKS AND INDIVIDUALS
On Thursday, the United States unilaterally blacklisted nine companies and government institutions, including two Russian firms, and three people for their support of North Korea's weapons programs.
That list included the Korea Computer Centre (KCC), a state-run enterprise that develops computer software and hardware products. Headquartered in Pyongyang, KCC has offices in Germany, China, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates, according to North Korean state media.