Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia said on March 29 that major powers needed a new approach to North Korea, accusing the United States and its allies of ratcheting up military tensions in Asia and seeking to “strangle” the reclusive state.

Russia vetoed the annual renewal of a panel of experts monitoring enforcement of longstanding United Nations sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

Moscow’s move, which strikes a blow at the enforcement of a myriad of U.N. sanctions imposed after Pyongyang carried out its first nuclear test in 2006, underscores the dividend that Kim Jong-un has earned by moving closer to President Vladimir Putin amid the war in Ukraine.

Also Read | The quick transformation of Russia-North Korea ties

“It is obvious to us that the UN Security Council can no longer use old templates in relation to the problems of the Korean Peninsula,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Ms. Zakharova said the U.S. was stoking military tensions, that international restrictions had not improved the security situation and that there were severe humanitarian consequences for the population 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 ‘strangling’ the DPRK by all available means, and a peaceful settlement is not on the agenda at all,” she said.

The U.S. State Department said on Thursday that Russia’s veto had “cynically undermined international peace and security” and accused Moscow of seeking to bury reporting by the panel of experts on its own “collusion” with North Korea to get weapons.

“Russia alone will own the outcome of this veto: a DPRK more emboldened to reckless behavior and destabilizing provocations, as well as reduced prospects for an enduring peace on the Korean Peninsula,” State Department spokesperson 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 was backed by 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.

Russia said the experts’ work was neither objective nor impartial, and that they had turned into a tool of the West.

“The Group of Experts of the UN Security Council Committee 1718 has lost all standards of objectivity and impartiality, which should be integral characteristics of its mandate,” Zakharova said.

She said the experts had “turned into an obedient tool of the DPRK’s geopolitical opponents. There is no point in saving it in this form”.

The veto illustrates just how far the Ukraine war, which triggered the deepest crisis in Russia’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, has undermined big-power cooperation on other major global issues.

Since Mr. Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has gone out of its way to parade a renaissance of its relationship – including military ties – with Pyongyang.

Washington says North Korea has supplied Russia with missiles that it is using against Ukraine, assertions which have been dismissed by the Kremlin and Pygonyang.

For Mr. Putin, who says Russia is locked in an existential battle with the West over Ukraine, courting Kim allows him to needle Washington and its Asian allies while securing a deep supply of artillery for the Ukraine war.

For Mr. Kim, who has pledged to accelerate production of nuclear weapons to deter what he casts as U.S. provocations, Russia is a big power ally with deep stores of advanced missile, military, space and nuclear technology.

Russia, Ms. Zakharova said, sought a compromise under which sanctions would be reviewed over specific time limits, though that proposal had been met with “hostility” by Washington.

“We call on the parties concerned to refrain from escalating steps and reconfigure themselves to find ways to detente, taking into account known security priorities,” Ms. Zakharova said.

Russia’s UN Security Council veto on March 28 blocked the renewal of the panel of experts tasked with investigating violations of sanctions tied to North Korea’s banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia faced a mounting backlash on March 29 after using its veto power to effectively end official U.N. monitoring of sanctions on North Korea amid a probe into alleged arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Russia’s UN Security Council veto on March 28 blocked the renewal of the panel of experts tasked with investigating violations of sanctions tied to North Korea’s banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

South Korea’s foreign ministry slammed the move as an “irresponsible decision”.

Also Read | The quick transformation of Russia-North Korea ties

Seoul has accused Pyongyang of sending thousands of containers of weapons to Moscow for use in Ukraine, and Russia’s move was “almost comparable to destroying a CCTV to avoid being caught red-handed”, said Hwang Joon-kook, South Korea’s U.N. ambassador.

The Kremlin defended its veto saying U.N. sanctions on North Korea were hindering dialogue and peace on the Korean peninsula and had not aided regional security.

“Over the years, international restrictive measures have not helped to improve the security situation in the region,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a daily briefing that Moscow’s position was “more in line with our interests”.

The European Union had earlier called Moscow’s veto “an effort to conceal unlawful arms transfers between DPRK and Russia, in the context of the latter’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine”, referring to the North by its official name.

The United States, meanwhile, said the vote was a “self-interested effort to bury the panel’s reporting on its own collusion” with North Korea.

“Russia’s actions today have cynically undermined international peace and security, all to advance the corrupt bargain that Moscow has struck with the DPRK,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said after the Thursday vote.

The panel’s mandate expires at the end of April.

North Korea has been under mounting sanctions since 2006, put in place by the U.N. Security Council in response to its nuclear program.

Since 2019, Russia and China have tried to persuade the Security Council to ease the sanctions, which have no expiration date.

The council has long been divided on the issue.

Political solution

China abstained rather than joining Russia in the veto. All other members had voted in favor of renewing the expert panel.

Beijing said Friday it opposed “blindly supporting sanctions” on North Korea.

“The current situation in the (Korean) Peninsula remains tense, and blindly imposing sanctions cannot solve the issue,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.

“A political solution is the only way,” he said when asked why Beijing abstained during the vote, adding that a “showdown at the U.N. Security Council is not conducive to its authority.”

China and Russia have in recent years ramped up economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts, and their strategic partnership has only grown closer since the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzia had earlier said that without an annual review to assess and potentially modify the sanctions, the panel was unjustified.

“The panel has continued to focus on trivial matters that are not commensurate with the problems facing the peninsula,” Nebenzia said.

Continued tests

Additional Security Council sanctions were levelled on Pyongyang in 2016 and 2017, but the North’s development of its nuclear and weapons programmes has continued unabated.

Last week, Pyongyang tested a solid-fuel engine for a “new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile,” state media reported.

Recent cruise missile launches have prompted speculation that North Korea is testing those weapons before shipping them to Moscow for use in Ukraine.

In its latest report, issued at the beginning of March, the sanctions panel reported that North Korea “continued to flout” sanctions, including by launching ballistic missiles and breaching oil import limits.

It added that it is investigating reports of arms shipments from Pyongyang to Russia for use in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba took to social media Thursday to call the veto “a guilty plea”.