Why Russia shelters North Korea in UN with veto of resolution to investigate sanction violations

RUSSIA has recently vetoed a United Nations resolution that would renew an independent panel of experts investigating North Korea’s violations of Security Council sanctions, at a time when Pyongyang has become a key supplier of munitions for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

In recent years, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen a massive buildup in Pyongyang’s ballistic missile program, with dozens of tests in a year, including long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles that could in theory reach the United States mainland.

International sanctions and UN investigations into North Korea’s illegal weapons program have previously been backed by Russia. But relations between Moscow and the West are at a historic low over the war unleashed on Ukraine.

Facing increased international ostracism – and acute ammunition shortages – Russian President Vladimir Putin has grown more reliant on North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un.

North Korea has also gained a powerful backer at the UN which wields veto power.

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council the UN-imposed sanctions regime on Pyongyang, aimed at stopping North Korea from conducting nuclear tests or launching ballistic missiles, is “losing its relevance” and is “detached from reality,” according to a UN press release.

Since UN Resolution 1718 was passed in 2006 establishing the seven-member panel, sanctions on North Korea have not achieved their aims or contributed to an improved situation on the Korean Peninsula, Russia contended.

Nebenzia said a coalition of countries led by the US wanted to strangle Pyongyang, a situation that affects Russia’s national security.

While UN sanctions prohibit arms transfers to or from North Korea, the Kim regime has become a big supplier of weapons to Putin’s war effort in Ukraine.

South Korea’s defense minister said in February that North Korea munitions factories are operating at full capacity to produce armaments to send to Russia, including millions of rounds of artillery shells.

Ukraine has also said it has found debris from North Korean-made ballistic missiles after attacks on targets in the country.

From Russia with Glove

The vote in the 15-member Security Council on Thursday was 13 in favor, Russia opposed and China abstaining. But as Russia holds veto power, the resolution to continue the panel of experts’ work failed.

Britain’s Ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward called the Russian veto “deeply concerning.”

“This veto does not demonstrate concern for the North Korean people or the efficacy of sanctions,” Woodward told the Security Council. Adding; “it is about Russia gaining the freedom to evade and breach sanctions in pursuit of weapons to be used against Ukraine.”

“This veto undermines the panel’s work; the integrity of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime; and this Council’s credibility in upholding UN Security Council resolutions,” Woodward said, adding that the panel of experts has “played a vital role in constraining” North Korea over the past decade.

US Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood asked how a civilized nation could block the approval.

“You silenced the panel of experts today, but you will never silence those in favor of a nonproliferation regime,” Wood said to Russia.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry also called Russia’s decision “irresponsible.”

South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Spokesperson came out strongly, with a statement on UN Security Council’s failure to adopt a draft resolution to extend the mandate of a panel of experts established pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1874 (2009).

The spokesperson noted that the Government of the Republic of Korea deeply regrets that a draft United Nations Security Council Resolution to extend the mandate of the Panel of Experts established pursuant to UN Security Council resolution 1874 (2009) was not adopted on the morning of March 28 (New York time) due to the veto by the Russian Federation, despite the overwhelming support by the absolute majority of the Security Council members.

“The Panel of Experts has carried out its role in monitoring the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which, in overt disregard of numerous Security Council resolutions, has continued to violate sanctions through various illicit activities such as nuclear and missile provocations, weapons exports, dispatch of workers overseas, cyber heists, and military cooperation with the Russian Federation, and advanced its nuclear and missile capabilities,” said the spokesperson.

The Government of the Republic of Korea, the statement said, clearly points out that the Russian Federation, despite its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has made an irresponsible decision.

The said decision is that of going against the will of the other members, thereby significantly undermining the UN sanctions regime and the credibility of the Council both of which the Russian Federation itself had advocated, at a time when the UN’s capacity for monitoring the implementation of sanctions should be further strengthened.

Based on the overwhelming support demonstrated by this Security Council vote, the spokesperson said, the Government of the Republic of Korea will closely cooperate with the international community for a strict implementation of sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, while firmly upholding the existing UN sanctions regime against the DPRK.

This is to ensure that the DPRK stops violating Security Council resolutions and returns to the path of denuclearization.

Through the tensest encounters with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia over the past decade, there has been one project in which Washington and Moscow have claimed common cause; keeping North Korea from expanding its arsenal of nuclear weapons. Now, even that has fallen apart.

UN Sanctions against North Korea

That is why 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 programs.

Russia said on Friday 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.

-Moscow’s move, which strikes a blow at the enforcement of a myriad of UN 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 Putin amid the war in Ukraine.

“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,” said Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova.

Zakharova said the United States 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 US State Department explained 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.

“It’s a remarkable shift,” Robert Einhorn, a State Department official during the Obama administration who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution told The New York Times.

“For much of the post-Cold War period, the United States, Russia and China were partners in dealing with proliferation challenges, especially with North Korea and Iran.”

“They were fully on the American and European side during the Iran negotiations, and helped with North Korea during the ‘fire and fury’ period in 2016 to 2017,” he said, referring to the Obama administration’s final negotiations with the North and former President Donald J Trump’s threats when he came to office.

But as Einhorn noted, that unity has fractured with the re-emergence of great power competition. The partnership on containing nuclear threats, even from North Korea, whose nuclear facilities pose a safety challenge to both China and Russia, has vanished.

Russia is now helping North Korea evade sanctions, and neither Russia nor China is actively working to pressure Iran to slow its accumulation of enriched uranium, the critical step needed if it ever decides to build nuclear weapons.

When resolutions have come up to condemn North Korea for its constant barrage of missile tests, Russia and China have rejected them.

But eliminating the “experts committee,” which began its work in 2009, cuts a new territory in relieving pressure on the country.

The Russian government made no apologies for killing off the panel.

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