US: Security Council united on denuclearizing North Korea
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared Friday that the U.N. Security Council is united on the need for the fully verified denuclearization of North Korea, and he urged all countries — especially Russia and China — to strictly enforce U.N. sanctions to achieve that goal.
Pompeo told reporters after briefing members of the U.N.’s most powerful body that President Donald Trump “remains upbeat about the prospects for denuclearization” following his historic summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “So do I, as progress is happening,” Pompeo added without elaborating.
But America’s top diplomat warned that “when sanctions are not enforced, the prospects for the successful denuclearization of North Korea are diminished.”
Right now, Pompeo said, North Korea is “illegally smuggling” refined petroleum products into the country beyond the quota of 500,000 barrels per year allowed under U.N. sanctions, mainly by ship-to-ship transfers. U.S. documents sent to the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions and obtained by The Associated Press cite 89 instances between Jan. 1 and May 30 in which North Korean tankers likely delivered refined products “illicitly procured” via such transfers.
North Korea is also evading sanctions by smuggling coal by sea, across borders, through cyber thefts and other criminal activities, and by keeping workers in some countries which he didn’t name, Pompeo said.
These actions are all “generating significant revenues for the regime and they must be stopped,” he said.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley criticized “some friends who want to go around the rules,” and especially Russia and China for blocking the sanctions committee from demanding that all countries halt shipments of petroleum products to North Korea immediately. Moscow and Beijing said they needed additional time to investigate the U.S. allegations, and put a six-month “hold” on the U.S. request.
“Are they telling us that they want to continue supplying this oil?” Haley asked, standing beside Pompeo. “They claim they need more information. We don’t need any more information. The sanctions committee has what it needs. We all know it’s going forward.”
“We put pressure today on China and Russia to abide and be good helpers through this situation, and to help us continue with denuclearization,” Hailey said.
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, told several reporters after the meeting that Pompeo confirmed the U.S. “will seek the full denuclearization” of North Korea.