SEOUL — Eleven countries, including South Korea, the United States and Japan, will launch a new joint mechanism to monitor North Korea sanctions violations, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday.
The decision follows Russia's decision to veto the renewal of a panel of UN experts monitoring international sanctions on North Korea in March, effectively ending official oversight of sanctions imposed for the North's banned nuclear and weapons programs.
Russia's veto was met with great criticism, with the United States calling it a "self-interested effort to bury the panel's reporting on its own collusion" with North Korea.
Since then, Seoul and other countries have been working to apply different methods to continue sanctions monitoring, with the US ambassador to the UN saying they are exploring "some creative ways" and "out-of-the-box thinking" to ensure the continuation of monitoring activities.
Alongside South Korea, the United States and Japan, eight other countries , France, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and New Zealand ,will participate in the multilateral sanctions monitoring team (MSMT).
The MSMT is "aligned in our commitment to uphold international peace and security and to safeguard the global non-proliferation regime and address the threat arising from (North Korea's) weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs," the countries said in a joint statement.
The MSMT will "monitor and report violations and evasions of the sanction measures" of the UN Security Council resolutions, it said.
"Our preference would have been to continue the previous regime," said US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell in a joint press conference in Seoul Wednesday.
"That avenue was prevented by Russian intransigence, so this is the approach that we've taken," he added.
"This grouping of nations that are animated by common purpose has the potential to actually surpass some of the work and reporting that was done previously," said Campbell.
Kim Hong-kyun, South Korea's first vice foreign minister, said the North "continues to violate UN Security Council resolutions in various areas".
The violations included "nuclear missile provocations, illegal arms deals with Russia, cyber theft of funds through hacking, and illegal ship-to-ship transfers at sea," said Kim.
Historic allies Russia and North Korea have drawn ever closer since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Seoul claims Pyongyang has been shipping arms to Moscow to use against Kyiv, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently accused the North of sending troops to Russia's army.
Pyongyang has denied any sanctions-busting weapons trade with Russia.
