Kim Jong Un’s friendship with Putin pays off: A Russian veto at the UN on sanctions and a harsh accusation against the US in just two days

A day after Russia vetoed the continuation of the UN panel of experts monitoring North Korea’s compliance with sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, Russia said major powers needed a new approach to North Korea, accusing The United States and its allies are escalating military tensions in Asia and trying to further isolate Kim Jong Un’s country, Reuters writes.

Russia has blocked the UN from forming a panel of experts to monitor the implementation of longstanding United Nations sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Moscow’s move, which deals a blow to enforcement of a host of UN sanctions imposed after Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, underscores Kim Jong Un’s gain by rapprochement with President Vladimir Putin amid the war in Ukraine.

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

Zaharova said the United States was fueling military tensions, that international restrictions had not improved the security situation and that there were serious humanitarian consequences for the people of North Korea, officially 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 at all on the agenda,” she said.

The US State Department said on Thursday that Russia’s veto had “cynically undermined international peace and security” and accused Moscow of trying to bury the panel’s reports on its own “conclusion” with North Korea in order to get weapons

“Only Russia will own the outcome of this veto: a more emboldened DPRK to confront reckless behavior and destabilizing provocations, and diminished prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller .

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 support 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 expert group of the 1718 Committee of the UN Security Council has lost all standards of objectivity and impartiality, which should be integral features of its mandate,” Zaharova said.

She also stated that the experts “have turned into an obedient tool of the DPRK’s geopolitical opponents. There is no point in saving him in this form.”

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

Since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has been pushing for a revival of its relationship – including military ties – with Pyongyang.

Washington says North Korea has supplied Russia with missiles it is using against Ukraine, claims that have been denied by the Kremlin and Pyongyang.

For Kim, who has pledged to accelerate nuclear weapons production to deter what he sees as US provocations, Russia is a major allied power with substantial missile stockpiles.

Russia, Zakharova said, had sought a compromise under which the sanctions would be revised within certain time limits, although that proposal was met with “hostility” by Washington.

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

Publisher: MI

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