Signaling new tensions over North Korea at the United Nations, Russia and China on Thursday blocked disciplinary steps sought by the United States to stop what it called rampant cheating on North Korea’s petroleum imports.
United Nations diplomats said the Russians and Chinese used their power to delay action on an American complaint to a Security Council sanctions panel that accused the North Koreans of importing up to triple the amount of refined petroleum allowed this year.
The petroleum limit is an important component of a severe regimen of sanctions imposed by the 15-member Security Council over North Korea’s illicit nuclear and missile tests.
The American complaint was filed last week, and under Security Council procedures the other members had until midday Thursday to object.
Just before the deadline Russia, supported by China, put a “hold” on the complaint, which delays any action for six months, the diplomats said.
The United States had no immediate comment on the move by Russia and China, which appeared to undermine what the Americans have previously described as a strong commitment by the Security Council to enforce the North Korean sanctions.
But questions about the willingness of other countries — particularly China and Russia — to maintain the sanctions pressure on North Korea have grown since President Trump met with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, last month in Singapore.
Mr. Trump has described that meeting in glowing terms and suggested the North Korean nuclear threat has eased, even though Mr. Kim has made no concrete commitments yet to denuclearize, raising doubts about his intentions.
If the North Koreans are successfully subverting the sanctions on imported petroleum, Mr. Kim would be under less pressure to disarm.
The American complaint said North Korea might have clandestinely imported nearly 1.4 million barrels of refined petroleum this year, triple the amount allowed for all of 2018, much of it smuggled via illicit ship-to-ship transfers at sea. The complaint requested the Security Council’s sanctions panel to “order an immediate halt to all transfers of refined petroleum products” to North Korea.
The move by Russia and China to delay action on the American complaint came a day before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was to visit the United Nations for talks on North Korea with diplomats from the Security Council, South Korea and Japan.
Mr. Pompeo has visited North Korea three times in the past few months and has insisted the sanctions will remain in force until the North denuclearizes. On Wednesday, Mr. Pompeo said that achieving a denuclearization agreement with the country “may take some time.”
Source : Nytimes
