1 week Ago By [email protected](KoreaTimes)
Citizens watch a news broadcast showing an explosion of the northern sections of two inter-Korean roads at Seoul Station, Oct. 15. Yonhap South Korea, the United States and Japan will establish a new joint mechanism with partner countries to monitor U.
N. sanctions on North Korea, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday, after Russia's veto ended the mandate of the U.N.
monitoring panel. The launch of the multilateral sanctions monitoring team (MSMT) came about seven months after Russia vetoed a resolution to extend the mandate of the U.N.
panel of experts that monitors the implementation of North Korean sanctions by U.N. member states.
The panel was terminated April 30. Seoul has since been working with the U.S.
and other like-minded countries on ways to continue the sanctions monitoring, including creating a framework outside of the U.N. system.
The MSMT will retain much of the U.N. structure to "monitor and report violations and evasions of the sanctions measures stipulated in the relevant UNSC resolutions," the joint statement read.
"The goal of the new mechanism is to assist the full implementation of the U.N. sanctions on the DPRK by publishing information based on rigorous inquiry into sanctions violations and evasions attempts," the statement said.
DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "We underscore our shared determination to fully implement relevant UNSC resolutions regarding the DPRK, reaffirm that the path to dialogue remains open, and call on all states to join global efforts to maintain international peace and security in the face of the ongoing threats from the DPRK," the statement said. Eight other countries will participate alongside South Korea, the U.
S. and Japan in the MSMT: France, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Diplomats participate in a United Nations (UN) meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) where they discussed recent missile tests by North Korea in N.
Y., May 11, 2022. AFP-Yonhap The MSMT is a product of the "shared understanding of the need to sustain the North Korean sanctions monitoring system, given that the North has continued to violate the sanctions by advancing its nuclear and missile programs and increasing arms exports," a foreign ministry official said.
South Korea also expects that the new mechanism will help overcome the "limitations" experienced by the U.N. panel, and be "free from the power dynamics" within the UNSC that had constrained the panel's activities, the official added.
The U.N. panel on monitoring North Korean sanctions had been extended every year since its launch in 2009 under UNSC Resolution 1874 adopted in the wake of the North's second nuclear test in May of the same year.
But in late March this year, Russia used its veto to block the renewal of the panel's mandate, in what was seen as an act of alignment with the North amid their deepening military and other ties. Russia is one of the five permanent UNSC member states, along with the U.S.
, Britain, France and China. China abstained from the vote for the panel mandate. North Korea is banned under multiple UNSC resolutions from trading goods or materials that could support its nuclear and missile programs.
However, it has long been suspected of illegally procuring prohibited items through ship-to-ship transfers and other methods, allegedly with tacit approval from China and Russia. (Yonhap).
