Russia has shut down the United Nations panel of experts that had long overseen sanctions against North Korea.
The commission announced last week that it was investigating reports that Russia violated rules by purchasing North Korean weapons, including ballistic missiles, for use in Ukraine.
The United Nations Security Council has imposed a series of sanctions on North Korea since 2006 due to its nuclear weapons program.
These restrictions will remain in place, but the expert group set up to monitor violations will be disbanded.
In Thursday's Security Council vote, Russia used its veto as a permanent member to block renewal, but 13 of the 14 other member states present voted in favor of it. . China, North Korea's closest ally, abstained.
The Russian bloc sparked a wave of condemnation from the United States, Britain, South Korea and other Western allies and comes after a year of high-profile public talks between Moscow and North Korea's leaders. Ta.
This is the first time Russia has blocked the panel, which has been updated annually by the UN Security Council for 14 years.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media that Russia's veto amounted to a “guilty plea” to using North Korea's weapons in the war.
The United States, Britain, and France all told the council that Russia's silence on watchdogs stems from violations of Moscow's own rules, particularly its purchase of weapons from North Korea for use on the battlefield in Ukraine. He said it was because he had started.
Meanwhile, South Korea's representative to the United Nations criticized Russia's “blind selfishness” and said there was no justification for “dissolving the guardians” of the sanctions regime.
Ambassador Hwang Jung-kook said, “This is almost equivalent to destroying surveillance cameras to avoid being caught red-handed.''
Russia has consistently denied North Korea's use of weapons, and a UN representative again dismissed the accusations on Thursday.
Vasily Nebenzia also argued that the expert committee has no added value.
“The committee has continued to focus on trivial issues that are out of proportion to the challenges facing the peninsula,” Nebenzia said, adding that sanctions impose a “huge burden” on the North Korean people.
Since 2019, Russia and China have been trying to persuade the Security Council to ease sanctions.
The Security Council first imposed sanctions in 2006 in response to North Korea's nuclear tests, and has since passed resolutions tightening ten more sanctions as North Korea's nuclear activities continue.
However, Kim Jong Un's regime has largely ignored the sanctions despite their economic impact. North Korea's leaders have rapidly continued to develop nuclear weapons in recent years and pursued increasingly aggressive and dangerous military strategies.
United Nations experts say North Korea continues to defy sanctions through increasing missile tests and developing nuclear weapons. The administration launched a reconnaissance satellite this year using technology believed to have been provided by Russia.
It also continues to import refined petroleum products and send workers overseas in violation of sanctions, and the latest UN panel report details cyberattack operations.