Russia intends to force the United Nations Security Council “to revise sanctions measures” on North Korea “towards easing them,” a diplomatic official explained after Moscow killed an international mechanism for monitoring sanctions violations.
“It is clear to us that the [UN Security] Council can no longer act on the Korean Peninsula issues according to the old patterns,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday, per state-run TASS. “On the contrary, in the absence of mechanisms to revise sanctions measures towards easing them, this instrument remains a serious irritant that hinders confidence-building and the maintenance of political dialogue.”
Zakharova’s statement represented a frank coda on a clash at the Security Council in which Russia vetoed the renewal of an independent panel known as the 1718 Committee. The dispute, which left U.S. and South Korean
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