Russia has blocked the UN Security Council’s resumption of oversight of North Korea sanctions

On Thursday, in the Security Council, Russia vetoed a resolution that was supposed to extend for another year the operation of the panel of experts who oversee compliance with UN sanctions against North Korea. It was reported by the news agencies Reuters and AP.

Russia’s refusal to oversee the sanctions, which Moscow has repeatedly agreed to in the past, comes as the West says North Korea is supplying Russia with weapons for its aggression in Ukraine. Both Moscow and Pyongyang deny the allegations. Last year, however, both countries pledged to deepen mutual military ties.

China abstained, the remaining 13 council members voted in favor of the resolution.

“Moscow has undermined the prospects for a peaceful and diplomatic solution to one of the world’s most dangerous nuclear proliferation issues,” Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, told the council. According to him, Russia blocked the panel’s further activity because “last year it began reporting on gross violations of UN Security Council resolutions by Russia.”

The White House responded by saying the Russian veto was a reckless move that further undermines Security Council sanctions against North Korea, while warning against deepening cooperation between Russia and the DPRK.

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, told the Security Council before the vote that Western countries were trying to “suffocate” North Korea and that sanctions had proved “irrelevant” and “detached from reality” in an effort to curb its nuclear program.

A group of independent experts has been monitoring the sanctions against the DPRK for 15 years, during which they have been gradually tightened to a total of 10 resolutions. It reports twice a year to the Security Council and recommends procedures for their more effective application.

In recent years, members of the UN Security Council have been divided on how to deal with Pyongyang. Russia and China, which along with the US, Britain and France have veto power, say further sanctions are going nowhere and are calling for the current ones, which are in place indefinitely, to be eased. During today’s negotiations on the text of the resolution, Moscow and Beijing unsuccessfully pushed for it to include a requirement that the sanctions regime must be renewed annually. The United States and other countries rejected it.