STORY: Russia said on Friday (March 29) that major powers should stop “strangling” North Korea.
The comment came after 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 missiles programs.
Three former members of the panel told Reuters that this points to a “grim future” for the sanctions enforcement.
According to the UN, North Korea is the only country to have conducted tests in the 21st century.
Moscow’s veto underscores the dividend that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has earned by moving closer to President Vladimir Putin amid the war in Ukraine.
It also illustrates just how far the conflict has undermined big-power cooperation on other major global issues.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the United States was stoking military tensions in Asia.
She added that international restrictions had not improved the security situation and that there were severe humanitarian consequences for the population of North Korea.
Russia said the experts’ work was neither objective nor impartial, and that they had turned into a tool of the West.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday that it was “deeply disappointed” at Russia’s veto. “………….”
Since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has gone out of its way to parade a renaissance of its relationship with Pyongyang, including its military ties with the reclusive state.
Washington says North Korea has supplied Russia with missiles that it is using against Ukraine.
Those assertions have been dismissed by the Kremlin and Pyongyang.
Published by Reuters on March 29, 2024 via Yahoo.news
Republished by The 21st Century
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of 21cir.com.