Veto against sanctions monitoring
Russia is openly siding with North Korea
March 28, 2024, 5:41 p.m
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Russia and North Korea are happily exchanging weapons and ammunition for oil – a clear violation of UN sanctions. The Kremlin is therefore vetoing any further monitoring of these sanctions by a committee of the organization.
Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on North Korea. This effectively eliminates monitoring of United Nations sanctions against North Korea by a panel of UN experts. The resolution was introduced by the USA. This would have extended the committee’s mandate by one year. However, the Russian veto stops its activity. 13 of the 15 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution, Russia exercised its veto right and China abstained.
Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said before the vote that Western countries were trying to “strangle” North Korea. The sanctions have proven to be “irrelevant” and “detached from reality” when it comes to restricting North Korea’s nuclear program. The veto comes just hours after Russia announced it would advance its ties with internationally isolated North Korea. The head of the Russian foreign secret service, Sergei Naryshkin, traveled to Pyongyang specifically for this purpose. North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported that the two sides had discussed further expanding cooperation to combat the “ever-increasing espionage and conspiracy attempts by enemy forces.”
Now the oil flows in exchange for weapons
The resolution does not change the sanctions themselves. They remain in force. However, North Korea’s allies can trade with the isolated state more or less uncontrolled and with impunity. Russia is now one of the strongest allies. A few days ago, the Financial Times, in collaboration with the Royal United Services Institute, revealed that Russia had begun supplying oil directly to North Korea – thereby violating relevant UN sanctions. At least five North Korean tankers were traveling this month to pick up oil products from the port of Vostochny in eastern Russia, satellite images show.
The North Korean-flagged ships, classified as oil tankers, all headed to the same berth operated by a Russian oil company. They were then apparently loaded there. All five ships had their transponders switched off. In response to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons tests, the UN imposed a strict cap on oil transfers. North Korea is allowed to import 500,000 barrels of oil per year; according to calculations by the research institute RUSI, a quarter of the annual volume has already been transported on the five ships.
“What we are seeing now is a clear arms-for-oil barter that blatantly violates the sanctions that Vladimir Putin personally signed,” said Hugh Griffiths, a former coordinator of the U.N. body that monitors sanctions on North Korea , the Financial Times. That would illustrate Russia’s path in recent years “from international spoilsport to criminal state.”
Trade between the two countries had intensified in recent months. North Korea delivered thousands of containers of ammunition to Russia last August. According to the research institute RUSI, the port of Vostochny was also used as a transshipment point. According to South Korean media, North Korea expects closer relations with Russia to support the development of rockets and cruise missiles.