Russia has blocked the renewal of a UN panel monitoring sanctions against North Korea, weeks after the body said it was investigating reports of arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.
The move was met with a flurry of criticism, including by Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who took to social media to call the veto “a guilty plea” amid allegations that Pyongyang is aiding Moscow in its war against Kyiv.
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.
Moscow’s veto at the security council does not remove the sanctions on North Korea, but spells the end for the group monitoring their implementation – and myriad alleged violations. The panel’s mandate expires at the end of April.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Russia has blocked the renewal of a UN panel monitoring sanctions against North Korea, weeks after the body said it was investigating reports of arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.
The move was met with a flurry of criticism, including by Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who took to social media to call the veto “a guilty plea” amid allegations that Pyongyang is aiding Moscow in its war against Kyiv.
Moscow’s veto at the security council does not remove the sanctions on North Korea, but spells the end for the group monitoring their implementation – and myriad alleged violations.
Russia had never previously tried to block the work of the panel of experts, which had been renewed annually by the UN security council for 14 years and reflected global opposition to North Korea’s expanding nuclear weapon programme.
Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council before the vote that western nations were trying to “strangle” North Korea and that sanctions are losing their “relevance” and “detached from reality” in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the country.
He said Russia’s veto will embolden North Korea to continue jeopardising global security through development “of long-range ballistic missiles and sanctions evasion efforts”.
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