Russia has blocked the renewal of the UN panel of experts overseeing international sanctions against North Korea, a few weeks after the organisation said it was investigating reports of arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Moscow’s action has been sharply criticised by South Korea, the US and Ukraine. The South Korean Foreign Ministry said that Russia had made an “irresponsible decision” despite its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. The US and Ukraine, for their part, said Moscow was trying to conceal its arms supply relationship with North Korea. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba took to social media to call the veto “a guilty plea” amid allegations that Pyongyang is aiding Moscow in its conflict with Ukraine.
China abstained, not joining Russia on the veto issue. All other members voted in favour of resuming the work of the expert group.
Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s representative to the UN, declared that without an annual review to ensure sanctions are assessed and potentially modified, the panel’s work was unjustified: “The panel has continued to focus on trivial matters that are not commensurate with the problems facing the peninsula.”
Moscow’s veto in the Security Council does not lift sanctions on North Korea, but it does mean the end of the panel overseeing their implementation, as well as a slew of alleged violations.
The commission said North Korea continues to defy sanctions, including launching ballistic missiles and violating restrictions on oil imports. North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and warheads continues even though Security Council sanctions were imposed on Pyongyang in 2016 and 2017. Last week, Pyongyang tested a solid-fuel engine for a new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile.
Earlier, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, has met with North Korean Minister of State Security, Ri Chang Dae. The officials discussed strengthening co-operation.
