US official briefs UN on North Korea sanctions monitoring report

Washington, July 18 (IANS) A US diplomat briefed United Nations (UN) member states on a recent report by an international North Korea sanctions monitoring team at the UN in New York on Thursday, focusing on military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, the State Department said.

Seth Bailey, the department's director for Korean and Mongolian affairs, gave the briefing on the first report by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), a group established in October last year to monitor and report violations and evasions of UN sanctions on North Korea.

The MSMT was established after a UN expert panel, tasked with monitoring sanctions enforcement, was disbanded in April last year due to Russia's veto of a resolution to extend its mandate. The new group consists of 11 countries, including South Korea, the United States, Japan, Australia and Canada, Yonhap news agency reported.

"Director Bailey detailed evidence of North Korea's arms and materiel transfers to Russia, Russia's transfer of military technology to North Korea, and Russia's training of North Korean troops in Russia," the department said in a media note.

"Director Bailey shared that the United States continues to support the complete denuclearisation of North Korea and is determined to hold it accountable for its UN sanctions violations," it added.

The diplomat also noted that the MSMT aims to continue publishing "timely, globally relevant and fact-based" reports on North Korea's UN sanctions violations across a range of topics.

Released in late May, the first MSMT report found that Russia has provided the North with air defence systems, electronic warfare jamming devices and other military support since late last year in violation of UN sanctions

Thursday's briefing came as Russia and North Korea have been deepening bilateral cooperation as seen in a recent visit to Pyongyang by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the North's reported decision to send additional military personnel to Russia.

--INAS

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