Russia vetoes U.N. group monitoring North Korean sanctions

March 29 (UPI) -- Russia voted against extending the mandate of a U.N. panel that monitors North Korean sanctions, prompting accusations from the United States and its allies that Moscow is helping the isolated regime evade Security Council resolutions as part of a weapons deal.

After efforts by Moscow and Beijing to insert "sunset" clauses into the sanctions regime, the Security Council held a vote Thursday to extend the Panel of Expert's work for another year. The Russian veto will end the panel's monitoring operations when the current mandate expires next month, but sanctions will remain in place.

In a joint statement, the United States, Britain, France, Japan and South Korea condemned the veto.

"Russia's veto is nothing more than an attempt to silence independent, objective investigations into persistent violations of Security Council resolutions by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and by Russia itself, as it seeks military support from the DPRK to wage its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine," the statement said.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

The vote comes weeks after the Panel of Experts released an annual report citing numerous sanctions violations by North Korea, including an estimated $3 billion generated from cyberattacks and used to fund the regime's illicit weapons program.

The panel's report also said it was investigating numerous accounts of arms transfers between Pyongyang and Moscow.

"Why would any council member not vote in support of this mandate renewal?" U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood asked after the vote.

"The answer is quite clear," he said. "The panel began reporting in the last year on Russia's blatant violations of the U.N. Security Council resolutions, in addition to the DPRK's persistent sanctions evasion efforts within Russia's jurisdiction."

Wood said that the vote will embolden North Korea to act with "further impunity" as it develops illicit weapons such as long-range ballistic missiles.

"Russia owns this failure," he added.

South Korea's U.N. Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook said Russia's veto meant that the council "has been taken hostage by one permanent member, [which] puts its blind self-centeredness over the council's collective responsibility for maintaining international peace and security."

"It is almost comparable to destroying a CCTV to avoid being caught red-handed," Hwang said.

The Security Council imposed sanctions on North Korea in 2006 after Pyongyang's first nuclear test and has added several rounds since. The Panel of Experts was established in 2009 to help monitor compliance and its mandate had been renewed each year until Thursday's vote, which was supported by 13 of the 15 member states.

Russia used its veto power as a permanent member of the council to scrap the resolution. China, which has sided with Moscow in recent years to block new actions against North Korea by the Security Council, abstained.

Ahead of the vote, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said that the current sanctions regime is "not only losing its relevance, but is extremely disconnected from reality."

"We see an unprecedented policy of the U.S.-led Western coalition towards 'strangling' Pyongyang, which includes harsh unilateral restrictions, aggressive propaganda and direct personal threats against the DPRK authorities," Nebenzia said.

On Wednesday, the United States and South Korea imposed new sanctions on individuals and entities connected with financing North Korea's weapons programs. The allies also launched a joint task force this week meant to disrupt Pyongyang's oil smuggling operations, which appear to have ramped up significantly with Russia's assistance.

Washington said Thursday that efforts to enforce sanctions and disrupt North Korean evasion networks would carry on despite the U.N. panel's dissolution.

"We will continue to work to counter the DPRK's unlawful actions, work with likeminded states through all available means to limit the threat posed by the DPRK, and respond to efforts by its enablers to shield the DPRK from responsibility," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press briefing.