(Adnkronos) – Eleven countries, including South Korea, the United States and Italy, are about to launch a new joint mechanism to monitor sanctions violations by North Korea. This was announced by the Seoul Foreign Ministry, with a move that follows Russia’s decision last March to veto the renewal of the UN group of experts that monitored international sanctions against Pyongyang, effectively ending official oversight of sanctions imposed for the North’s banned nuclear and weapons programs.
Russia’s veto was met with great criticism, and was called by Washington a “selfish effort to cover up its collusion” with North Korea in the expert group’s report. Since then, Seoul and other countries have been looking for different ways to continue monitoring sanctions, and the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Group (MSMT) was born, today composed of South Korea, Japan, the United States, Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The MSMT is “aligned with our commitment to uphold international peace and security and to safeguard the global non-proliferation regime and address the threat posed by North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs,” member states said in a joint statement. The MSMT “will monitor and report violations and evasions of sanctions measures” of United Nations Security Council resolutions. “Our preference would have been to continue the previous regime – said US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell at a joint press conference in Seoul – This path has been prevented by Russian intransigence, so this is the approach we have taken”. “This grouping of nations united by a common purpose has the potential to overcome some of the work and reporting done previously,” Campbell concluded.
