Russia spar over North Korea sanctions
The United States of America and Russia were involved in a verbal spat over international sanctions placed on Kim Jong-un’s North Korea.
In an acrimonious meeting staged at the UN headquarters in New York, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, accused Russia of “cheating” international sanctions that were placed on North Korea.
Haley said Russia’s move was in a bid to choke Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
During a fractious Security Council meeting which comes on the eve of the inter-Korea summit in Pyongyang, Haley said Moscow had tried to conceal “systematic” violations of the 15-member body’s penalties on Pyongyang and pressure UN experts into altering a report on the implementation of the sanctions.
“Russia must cease its violations of North Korea sanctions. It must end its concerted effort to cover up evidence of sanctions violations,” Haley said at the UN headquarters in New York.
Reacting to the accusations by Haley, Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said Moscow insisted on having the report amended as it had become “hostage to the vision of Washington” and did not take into account Russia’s views.
“Unsurprisingly, therefore, we insisted on having our position reflected in the document,” he said, adding that the report determined that a specific ship-to-ship transfer of fuel by a Russian ship cited by Haley was not a violation.
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