MOSCOW –
Russia said on Friday that major powers needed a new approach toward North Korea, accusing the United States and its allies of increasing military tensions in Asia and seeking to “strangle” the isolated state.
Russia vetoed the annual renewal of a panel of experts that oversees enforcement of long-standing United Nations sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
Moscow’s move, which deals a blow to the implementation of myriad UN sanctions imposed after Pyongyang carried out its first nuclear test in 2006, underscores the dividend Kim Jong Un has gained by warming up to President Vladimir Putin. in the middle of the war in Ukraine.
“It is obvious to us that the UN Security Council can no longer use old models in relation to the problems of the Korean Peninsula,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Zakharova said the United States was stoking military tensions, that international restrictions had not improved the security situation and that there were serious humanitarian consequences for the people of North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
“The United States and its allies have clearly demonstrated that their interest does not extend beyond the task of ‘strangle’ the DPRK by all available means, and a peaceful solution is not at all on the agenda,” he said.
The US State Department said on Thursday that Russia’s veto had “cynically undermined international peace and security” and accused Moscow of trying to bury expert panel reports on its own “collusion” with North Korea to get weapons.
“Russia will bear sole responsibility for the outcome of this veto: a DPRK further emboldened to reckless behavior and destabilizing provocations, as well as diminished prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
The Russian veto is seen as a major turning point in the international sanctions regime against North Korea, which was formed in 1948 with the backing of the then Soviet Union, while the Republic of Korea had the backing of the United States.
North Korea is the only country to have conducted nuclear tests in the 21st century: in 2006, 2009, 2013, twice in 2016 and 2017, according to the United Nations.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, is surrounded by soldiers during his visit to his main tank group, the 105th Guards Tank Division Ryu Kyong Su from Seoul, North Korea on March 24, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
Sanctions?
Russia said the experts’ work was neither objective nor impartial and that they had become a tool of the West.
“The UN Security Council 1718 Committee Group of Experts has lost all standards of objectivity and impartiality, which should be integral features of its mandate,” Zakharova said.
According to her, the experts “have become an obedient tool of the DPRK’s geopolitical opponents. There is no point in saving it in this way.”
The veto illustrates the extent to which the Ukraine war, which triggered the deepest crisis in Russia’s relations with the West since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, has undermined cooperation between great powers on other important global issues.
Since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has gone to great lengths to boast of a revival of its relationship – including military ties – with Pyongyang.
Washington says North Korea has supplied Russia with missiles that it is using against Ukraine, claims that have been dismissed by the Kremlin and Pygonyang.
For Putin, who says Russia is locked in an existential battle with the West over Ukraine, courting Kim allows him to irritate Washington and its Asian allies while securing a large supply of artillery for the Ukraine war.
For Kim, who has promised to accelerate the production of nuclear weapons to deter what he calls American provocations, Russia is a great allied power with large reserves of advanced nuclear, military, space and missile technology.
Russia, Zakharova said, sought a compromise under which sanctions would be reviewed within specific time limits, although that proposal was met with “hostility” from Washington.
“We ask the parties involved to refrain from escalating measures and reconfigure to find ways of de-escalation, taking into account known security priorities,” Zakharova said.
(Written by Guy Faulconbridge Edited by Gareth Jones and Chizu Nomiyama)