Accuses Russia of 'cheating' on North Korea sanctions
- by Kelli Lowe
- in Global Media
- — Sep 20, 2018
US Ambassador Nikki Haley said her country tracked at least 148 instances of oil tankers delivering fuel to the North in illegal ship-to-ship transfers.
Haley fired back that Russian Federation is pursuing a strategy to "deny, distract, and lie" about violating North Korea sanctions.
She said the United States has prevented the "tainted" report's publication.
Russian's Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia denied the allegations and blamed Haley for heightening tensions. "We urge the Panel not to cave to Russian pressure and to release the original version of the report". The South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that Pompeo said he shared information with the State Department from the information Kang briefed him on earlier in the day.
"We must not soften the sanctions regime at the global level", on the contrary, said Nikki Haley.
On 12 June, the President of the United States Donald trump held a summit with the head of the DPRK Kim Jong-UN in Singapore. That first-ever meeting of leaders from the two countries has been followed by a diplomatic impasse over how to achieve the agreed-upon goal of denuclearization.
The sanctions "are not an a la carte menu where each piocherait according to its appetites", said the French ambassador, François Delattre. "We believe they are central to President Trump's efforts to convince Chairman Kim that full, final denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is necessary", he said. "But we are not there yet". She went a step further, saying the USA has proof Russian Federation violated sanctions by helping North Korea get oil and coal.
The DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"It is hard to come to agreement if you offer nothing in return for your demands", he said.
Monday's meeting, called for by the United States, came on the eve of a high-stakes inter-Korean summit in the Pyongyang.
He called for "confidence-building measures", citing as a possibility the signing of a peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War.
"I suggest the Security Council members consider creating special conditions on the 1718 commissions for the request for a temporary exemption from checks from the sanctions resumed for the implementation of inter-Korean cooperation projects".
China's ambassador Ma Zhaoxu said "confrontation is a dead end" and called for United Nations sanctions to be enforced but gradually lifted as a reward for steps toward denuclearization.
"Confrontation is a dead end", he said.
Both Russia and China have been pressing for lifting some United Nations sanctions to give North Korea a financial incentive to denuclearize.
On the heels of Haley's security council remarks, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter that Russian Federation is actively undermining compliance with North Korea sanctions.
Haley's call for the Security Council meeting on Monday was met with some bipartisan support in Congress. Sens.
The United States has called for an "urgent" meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday to address recent efforts by "some member ['s]" to "undermine and obstruct" United Nations sanctions against North Korea.
