Russia on Thursday (March 28) blocked the annual renewal of a panel of experts scrutinising the imposition of UN sanctions against North Korea over its ballistic projectile agendas and nuclear weapons.
The move comes weeks after the United Nations stated that it was probing US accusations and reports of the transfer of arms between Pyongyang and Moscow that apparently had been used by the latter in its war against Ukraine.
However, both Russia and North Korea have denied the accusations but did vow to have deepened their military relations last year.
“This is almost comparable to destroying a CCTV to avoid being caught red-handed,” said South Korea’s UN Ambassador Joonkook Hwang of Russia’s veto.
China on Thursday abstained from the vote, while the other 13 council members voted in its favour.
“Moscow has undermined the prospect of the peaceful, diplomatic resolution of one of the world’s most dangerous nuclear proliferation issues,” deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the council.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia questioned the work done by the experts before the vote and told the Security Council, “Its work is increasingly being reduced to playing into the hands of Western approaches, reprinting biased information and analyzing newspaper headlines and poor quality photos.”
‘A guilty plea’
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba took to social media and slammed the veto calling it “a guilty plea”.
The United States called the veto by Russia a “self-interested effort to bury the panel’s reporting on its own collusion” with North Korea.
“Russia’s actions today have cynically undermined international peace and security, all to advance the corrupt bargain that Moscow has struck with the DPRK,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea has been under the sanction of the United Nations over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs since the year 2016.
Over the years, these measures have been intensified.
For the past 15 years, the UN sanctions have been monitored by the panel of independent experts reporting to the Security Council twice a year, further recommending efforts for improved implementation of the measures.
The directive for the current panel of experts will expire on April 30, 2024.
The most recent report by them, which was made public earlier this month, stated that it was probing dozens of suspected cyberattacks by North Korea that raked in $3 billion to help it further develop its nuclear weapons program.
“The panel, through its work to expose sanctions non-compliance, was an inconvenience for Russia,” said Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward. “But let me be clear to Russia – the sanctions regime remains in place and the UK remains committed to holding DPRK to account for its compliance.”
(With inputs from agencies)
