This is a real setback for the United Nations. Russia imposed on Thursday March 28 the dissolution of the UN sanctions monitoring system against North Korea and its nuclear program, a coup denounced by the United States and its allies denouncing mutual protection between the two countries . She thus used her veto during a vote for the renewal of the mandate of the committee responsible for supervising sanctions against the country.
“What Russia has done today with cynicism undermines peace and security in the world, all this to favor a corrupt barter that Moscow has sealed” with Pyongyang, on arms in particular, reacted the spokesperson. word of the US State Department Matthew Miller.
An “irresponsible decision”
For its part, Seoul described Russia's veto as an “irresponsible decision”, via a press release from the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
North Korea has been subject to UN Security Council sanctions linked to its nuclear program since 2006, reinforced several times in 2016 and 2017. But since 2019, Russia and China, notably highlighting the humanitarian situation of the North Korean population, are demanding relief from these sanctions, which have no end date.
Suspicions of arms exports to Russia
In its latest 600-page report at the beginning of March, the committee of experts underlines that North Korea continues to "flout the Security Council sanctions", in particular by developing its nuclear program, by launching ballistic missiles, by violating sanctions maritime and oil import limits.
The committee also claims to have begun to investigate “information” reporting the export by North Korea of “conventional weapons and ammunition” in violation of sanctions, particularly to Russia.
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This veto “is in fact an admission of guilt. Moscow no longer hides its military cooperation with North Korea (…) as well as the use of North Korean weapons in the war against Ukraine,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba commented on X.