Russia has vetoed the annual renewal of the mandate of the panel of experts monitoring the implementation of longstanding United Nations sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
The move comes amid US accusations that North Korea has transferred weapons to Russia, which Moscow has used in its war in Ukraine. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the accusations but vowed last year to deepen their military ties.
China abstained from today’s vote, while the remaining 13 Council members voted in favor.
“This is almost comparable to destroying a closed-circuit surveillance camera to avoid being caught red-handed,” South Korea’s UN ambassador Junkook Hwang said of Russia’s veto of renewing North Korea sanctions monitors.
“Moscow has undermined the prospect of a peaceful, diplomatic resolution to one of the world’s most dangerous nuclear proliferation issues,” Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the Council.
In an attempt to justify his stance, Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia questioned the experts’ work, telling the Security Council before the vote: “Its work is increasingly limited to playing into the hands of Western approaches, republishing biased information and analyzing newspaper headlines and poor-quality photographs’.
North Korea has been under UN sanctions over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs since 2006, and those measures have been tightened over the years.
The group of independent experts has been monitoring these UN sanctions for the past 15 years, reporting twice a year to the Security Council and recommending action to improve the implementation of the measures.
The mandate of the current panel of experts expires on 30 April 2024.
The group’s most recent report was released earlier this month, and it said it was investigating dozens of suspected North Korean cyberattacks that brought in $3 billion to help it further develop its nuclear weapons program.
“The commission, through its work to expose sanctions non-compliance, has been troubling Russia,” said UK ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward. “But let me be clear to Russia – the sanctions regime remains in place and the UK remains committed to holding the DPRK to account for its compliance.”
In recent years the UN Security Council has been divided over how to deal with Pyongyang. Russia and China, powers that along with the US, UK and France have veto power, have said more sanctions are not helping and want the measures eased.
China and Russia say joint US-South Korean military gymnasiums provoke Pyongyang, while Washington accuses Beijing and Moscow of emboldening North Korea by shielding it from more sanctions.
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