US to confront Russia at UN over North Korean weapons

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States will confront Russia at the United Nations Security Council on Friday over its violation of an arms embargo on North Korea and press China to adopt the position of strengthening ties between Moscow and Pyongyang, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said.

The meeting of the 15-member council comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Pyongyang last week to sign a pact with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in which they agreed to provide military assistance if either faces armed aggression.

“This should be a source of great concern to the entire international community,” Wood told Reuters ahead of the meeting, accusing Russia of “siding with a rogue state in violation of countless U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

“This is an unprecedented situation and we must denounce it,” he said. “We also want to know China's opinion on this growing military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia. She cannot see this as a positive development. »

China reacted cautiously last week. China's Foreign Ministry said the summit was a bilateral exchange between Russia and North Korea, but did not give details.

Formerly known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and those measures have been tightened over the years, with Russian support.

But over the past year, the United States has repeatedly accused North Korea of ​​sending weapons to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine, which it invaded in February 2022. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the accusations.

'TRAINING GROUND'

U.N. sanctions monitors told a Security Council committee in a report seen by Reuters in April that debris from a missile that landed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Jan. 2 came from a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile.

The UN sanctions monitoring group was disbanded in late April after Russia vetoed its renewal. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that Russia must respect U.N. sanctions against North Korea.

“Russia is determined to break the sanctions regime and China has done little to restrain Moscow,” said Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group.

He said Friday's council meeting “looks more like an attempt by the United States to portray Russia as the bad guy” rather than an opportunity for the body to get the sanctions regime back on track.

Wood has accused Russia of firing dozens of North Korean missiles into Ukraine, calling the war a “training ground” for Pyongyang. Ukrainian prosecutors said in May they had examined debris from 21 of the roughly 50 North Korean missiles launched by Russia between December and February.

Last week, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of firing “a total of four ballistic missiles potentially supplied by North Korea toward Ukraine – two on June 15 and two more on June 16.”

For several years, the UN Security Council has been divided on how to deal with North Korea. Russia and China say more sanctions will do no good and want the measures to be eased. They proposed the lifting of certain sanctions in December 2019 but never submitted their draft resolution to a vote.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols)