March 29, 2024 (EIRNS)—Yesterday, Russia used its veto to block the extension of the mandate of the panel of experts of Committee 1718 of the UN Security Council, which is charged with implementing UN sanctions against North Korea. The panel of experts was established to assist the committee to, among other things, “gather, examine and analyze information from States, relevant United Nations bodies and other interested parties regarding the implementation of the measures, and gather, examine and analyze information in particular, on incidents of non-compliance,” pursuant to numerous UNSC sanctions dating back to 2006.
The resolution, drafted by the U.S., would have extended the panel’s mandate to April 30, 2025, reported TASS. Without the extension, it expires on April 30 of this year. Before the vote Russian UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia told the council that it had long been faced with the need for giving thought to actualizing the sanction regime against North Korea, while the group of experts of this sanctions committee no longer coped with its duties. He accused the group of “The Panel’s work has been reduced to playing along with Western approaches, replicating biased information, analyzing newspaper headlines and low-quality photos.” Therefore, he said, “In doing so, the Panel effectively testified to its inability to develop sober assessments of the state of D.P.R.K.’s sanctions regime.”
