SEOUL – Eleven countries, including South Korea, the United States and Japan, will launch a new joint mechanism to monitor North Korea sanctions’ violations, Seoul’s foreign ministry said yesterday.

The decision follows Russia’s decision to veto the renewal of a panel of United Nations’ (UN) experts monitoring international sanctions on North Korea in March, effectively ending official oversight of sanctions imposed for the North’s banned nuclear and weapons programmes.

Russia’s veto was met with great criticism, with the United States calling it a “self-interested effort to bury the panel’s reporting on its collusion” with North Korea.

Since then, Seoul and other countries have been working to apply different methods to continue sanctions’ monitoring, with the United States (US)’ ambassador to the UN saying they are exploring “some creative ways” and “out-of-the-box thinking” to ensure the continuation of monitoring activities.

Alongside South Korea, the US and Japan, eight other countries – France, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – will participate in the multilateral sanctions’ monitoring team (MSMT).

The MSMT is “aligned in our commitment to uphold international peace and security, to safeguard the global non-proliferation regime and address the threat arising from (North Korea’s) weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes,” the countries said in a joint statement.

The MSMT will “monitor and report violations and evasions of the sanction measures” of the UN Security Council resolutions, it said.

“Our preference would have been to continue the previous regime,” said US deputy secretary of State Kurt Campbell in a joint press conference in Seoul yesterday.

Historic allies Russia and North Korea have drawn ever closer since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. 

– Nampa/AFP