SEOUL: The United States, South Korea and Japan on Wednesday (Oct 16) announced the launch of a new multinational team to monitor the enforcement of sanctions against North Korea after Russia and China thwarted monitoring activities at the United Nations.
The mechanism, named the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, was introduced after Russia in March rejected the annual renewal of a UN panel of experts that had over the past 15 years overseen the implementation of sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. China abstained from the vote.
The team is meant to continue the UN panel’s work, including issuing regular reports on sanctions enforcement, and will involve the participation of eight other countries including Britain, France and Germany, a South Korean official said.
Its launch was unveiled at a joint press conference in Seoul by US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun and Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano, alongside ambassadors of the eight countries, ahead of their talks in Seoul.
“There have been many discussions about how to build an effective monitoring system that can replace the UN panel, but even during that process, cases of North Korea violating sanctions continued to occur, so we thought that we should not delay any longer and should quickly fill the gap,” Kim told the news conference.
While the allies will continue to seek ways to reinstate the UN scheme, the team is open to all countries that are willing to help ensure the implementation of sanctions, Kim added.
