Russia blocks UN expert panel on North Korea nuclear program

Even before the move at the U.N., Russia and North Korea let the world know they were moving even closer with Moscow dispatching its spy chief Sergey Naryshkin for a rare visit to Pyongyang this week and putting the news out on official media in both countries.

This came after the U.K.-based Royal United Services Institute security think tank used dozens of commercial satellite images to flag at least five North Korean vessels it said loaded oil this month at Vostochny Port in Russia’s Far East. If full, the vessels could carry approximately 125,000 barrels, which is a quarter of the U.N. oil cap, it said.

“The fact that U.N.-designated North Korean vessels are berthed at a Russian oil terminal is in itself a violation of sanctions that Russia agreed to put in place,” said Ino Terzi, a research analyst at RUSI.

South Korea’s defense minister Shin Wonsik said this month that North Korea has sent some 7,000 shipping containers that could hold as much as 3 million rounds of 152 mm artillery shells since Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in September.

Russia in return is providing North Korea with food, raw materials and parts used in weapons manufacturing, he said. If the arms transfers grow, Russia will likely send more military technology to Kim, increasing Pyongyang’s threat to the region, he added.

Russia and North Korea have denied the arms transfers accusations despite satellite photos released by research groups and the U.S. government that they say show the flow of weapons from North Korea to Russia and then to munitions dumps near the border with Ukraine.

Despite Moscow’s close ties with Pyongyang, the veto marks a shift in policy at the Security Council, as this is the first time Russia flatly opposed the panel’s mandate in the 15 years since it was established.

“This veto does not demonstrate concern for the North Korean people or the efficacy of sanctions. It is about Russia gaining the freedom to evade and breach sanctions in pursuit of weapons to be used against Ukraine,” Barbara Woodward, the U.K. ambassador to the U.N., said after the vote. “This panel, through its work to expose sanctions non-compliance, was an inconvenience for Russia.”

_____

(With assistance from Justin Sink, Soo-Hyang Choi and Niluksi Koswanage.)

_____