Allies, Partners resolute over North Korea WMD sanctions, condemn Russia’s veto

FORUM Staff

Russia’s latest attempt to weaken monitoring of United Nations sanctions of North Korea over its illegal nuclear weapons program will have negligible impact, according to security experts.

In late March 2024, Moscow vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have extended the mandate for a panel of experts (POE) to monitor the sanctions. The veto has instead called attention to Russia’s efforts to obtain weapons from North Korea for its illegal war against Ukraine, experts said.

U.N. sanctions against North Korea, officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), remain in force. The POE, without another yearlong extension, is scheduled to end in April 2024.

“Despite the outcome of today’s vote, the Security Council’s resolutions and all U.N. measures against the DPRK’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs remain in effect,” according to a March 28 statement by France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. “Therefore, the DPRK and all Member States must abide by their obligations as set out in these resolutions.”

Russia “will never silence those of us who stand in support of the global nonproliferation regime,” the Allies and Partners stated. “We will continue to call on the Security Council to fulfill its primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security. We will continue to work in good faith with all members of the Security Council, as well as other Member States, to implement Security Council resolutions and work towards our shared goal for the DPRK to abandon all nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction, and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.”

Monitoring alternatives include new or existing coalitions that can be “far more powerful than relying” on the POE, Joshua Stanton, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who helped draft the U.S.’s North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016, told the Voice of America (VOA) news network.

The U.S. and its Allies and Partners have an opportunity to build a stronger coalition and enhance investigation and enforcement of sanctions through more effective mechanisms, Stanton said.

Global coalitions working to thwart the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) include the Proliferation Security Initiative, created in 2003, and the Egmont Group, launched in 1995 to counter money laundering and terrorism financing.

In March 2024, just before Russia’s veto, the Enhanced Disruption Task Force, a South Korea-U.S. partnership to stop Pyongyang from circumventing U.N. sanctions to obtain petroleum, held its first meeting, according to VOA. The longtime allies also designated eight individuals and entities as instrumental in transferring funds to help North Korea develop unlawful WMDs.

Other counterproliferation measures continue. In early April, South Korea sanctioned two Russian ships associated with North Korea’s arms trading with Moscow, as well as Russian individuals and companies allegedly tied to North Korea’s deployment of overseas information technology workers, according to the NK News website. A day later, Seoul seized a vessel allegedly involved in violating U.N. sanctions off South Korea’s south coast, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Russia’s veto also highlighted Moscow’s growing isolation since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. It may also have been an effort to obscure Russia’s procurement of weapons from North Korea, analysts and diplomats said.

U.K. Ambassador to the U.N. Barbara Woodward said the veto followed arms deals between Russia and North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions, including “the transfer of ballistic missiles, which Russia has then used in its illegal invasion of Ukraine since the early part of this year.”

“This panel, through its work to expose sanctions noncompliance, was an inconvenience for Russia,” Woodward said, according to The Associated Press (AP).

The 15-member U.N. Security Council had renewed the POE annually for the past 14 years. Russia is the first of the council’s five permanent members to vote against the extension. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) abstained in the March vote.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood accused Moscow of targeting the panel because it “began reporting in the last year on Russia’s blatant violations of the U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

He warned that Russia’s veto could encourage North Korea to continue to risk global security through development of “long-range ballistic missiles and sanctions evasion efforts.”

U.S. officials also cautioned against the deepening cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, as North Korea continues to supply Russia with weapons for its war against Ukraine, AP reported.

After North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006, the Security Council imposed sanctions and then tightened them to further curb Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

In May 2022, the PRC and Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution to impose more sanctions on North Korea over a series of intercontinental ballistic missile launches.