A group of UN specialists that had been following the sanctions against North Korea for years has been disbanded by Russia.
Last week, the panel declared that it was looking into allegations that Russia had broken the law by acquiring ballistic missiles and other weapons from North Korea to deploy in Ukraine.
Since 2006, Pyongyang has been subject to a number of sanctions by the UN Security Council due to its nuclear weapons program.
The specialists committee that was established to keep an eye out for infractions will now be dissolved, but the limits remain in place.
Thirteen of the fourteen member nations present voted in favor of the renewal, but Russia used its veto power as a permanent member to reject it in a Security Council vote on Thursday. The closest ally of Pyongyang, China, did not vote.
Russia has blocked the panel for the first time; it has been renewed annually by the UN Security Council for 14 years. The US, UK, South Korea, and other Western allies condemned Russia’s block, which followed a year of high-profile public meetings between leaders of Moscow and Pyongyang.
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Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, said on social media that Russia’s veto amounted to “a guilty plea” acknowledging that it was using weapons made in North Korea to wage war.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and France informed the Council that Russia was trying to silence the watchdog because it had started to expose Moscow’s own transgressions of the law, including the acquisition of weapons from North Korea for use in the conflict zones in Ukraine.
Russia’s “blind self-centeredness” was criticized by South Korea’s UN delegate, who also stated that Russia had no reason “for disbanding the guardians” of the sanctions system.
Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook stated, “This is almost like blowing up a CCTV to avoid getting caught red-handed.”
Russia has continuously refuted claims that it has used weapons from North Korea, and on Thursday, its UN ambassador again played down the allegations.
Furthermore, Vasily Nebenzia said that the expert panel offered nothing new.
According to Mr. Nebenzia, the sanctions have placed a “heavy burden” on the people of North Korea. “The panel has continued to focus on trivial matters that are not commensurate with the problems facing the peninsula,” he said.
China and Russia have been attempting to convince the Security Council to loosen sanctions since 2019.
In response to a nuclear test by North Korea, the Security Council first imposed sanctions in 2006. Since then, as Pyongyang’s nuclear activities has persisted, the council has enacted ten more resolutions to reinforce the penalties.
Despite the sanctions’ negative effects on the economy, Kim Jong Un’s government has mostly disregarded them. In recent years, the leader of North Korea has adopted a more aggressive and risky military posture in addition to swiftly continuing the development of nuclear weapons.
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