U.S. calls urgent U.N. meeting over violations of N. Korea sanctions
UNITED NATIONS — The United States has called an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council for Monday in response to what it says are efforts by some countries “to undermine and obstruct” sanctions against North Korea.
The U.S. Mission announced Friday evening that the meeting will “discuss the implementation and enforcement of U.N. sanctions on North Korea.”
The mission didn’t name any countries, but U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley accused Russia on Thursday of pressuring an independent panel of U.N. experts to alter a report on North Korea sanctions that included alleged violations “implicating Russian actors.”
Haley said the panel should release the original report, which cited “a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products” for North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions. It said some products allegedly were offloaded from Russian ships, which were identified in the report.
A summary of the experts report obtained in early August by the Associated Press also said North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs. And it said North Korea is violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions.
The Security Council initially imposed sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear test in 2006 and has toughened them in response to further nuclear tests and an increasingly sophisticated ballistic missile program.
Haley said earlier this year that successively tough Security Council sanctions resolutions adopted unanimously had cut off all North Korean exports, 90 percent of its trade, and disbanded its pool of workers sent abroad to earn hard currency.
Many diplomats and analysts credit the sanctions with helping promote the thaw in relations between North Korea and South Korea as well as the June meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
But in July, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused North Korea of “illegally smuggling” in refined petroleum products beyond the annual quota of 500,000 barrels allowed under U.N. sanctions.
U.S. documents sent to the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea and obtained by AP cited 89 instances between Jan. 1 and May 30 in which North Korean tankers likely delivered refined products “illicitly procured” via transfers from other ships at sea.
The U.S. said Russia and China both informed the sanctions committee that they were supplying refined products to North Korea. China, which is North Korea’s closest ally, is responsible for more than 90 percent of the isolated country’s trade.
Also Friday, the rival Koreas opened their first liaison office to facilitate better communication and exchanges ahead of their leaders’ summit in Pyongyang next week.
The office’s opening in the North Korean border town of Kaesong is the latest in a series of reconciliatory steps the Koreas have taken this year. The office is the first of its kind since the Koreas were divided at the end of World War II.