New US-led groups monitoring sanctions on North Korea will fail: UN envoy

North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations Kim Song has censured Western countries’ “hostile” bids to form new groups to monitor sanctions against Pyongyang, saying such attempts will fail.

“The hostile forces may set up the second and third expert panels in the future but they are all bound to meet self-destruction with the passage of time,” North Korea’s KCNA news agency quoted Kim as saying in a statement on Sunday.

Last week, the United States and its allies called for the continuance of work by a UN panel of experts to monitor the sanctions slapped against Pyongyang for its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

The renewal of the previous UN expert panel to monitor the anti-Pyongyang sanctions was rejected earlier this year because Russia vetoed the UN Security Council resolution calling for the annual extension of its mandate. Also, China abstained from the vote.

The United States and its allies are now making efforts to create an alternative body without the help of Russia and China to monitor North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

The new monitoring body “may not hold the same political legitimacy as a report produced under a [UN] mandate,” said a former member of the UN panel of experts who is currently a senior associate fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

Aaron Arnold said a report needs to be under the aegis of the UN to gain credence from the relevant stakeholders in the anti-Pyongyang sanctions, such as international banks.

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In mid-April, the US ambassador to the United Nations visited South Korea and Japan to discuss new ways of enforcing sanctions against Pyongyang.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at an April 17 news conference in Seoul that it was “critical” for all UN member states to continue “receiving independent and accurate reporting of the DPRK’s ongoing weapons proliferation and sanction evasion activities.”

“We will eventually find a mechanism to continue to do that reporting. And yes, Russia and China will continue to try to block those efforts,” Thomas-Greenfield said, adding, “I don’t expect that they will cooperate or agree with any efforts that we make to find another path, but that is not going to stop us from finding that path moving forward.”

Her trip came after the renewal of the multinational panel of experts that has over the past 15 years monitored the implementation of UN sanctions was rejected.

Last month, North Korea’s military conducted a test of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) from its eastern coast capable of hitting US military bases in the Western Pacific.

In March, it conducted a ground jet test for a new hypersonic IRBM, specifically focusing on the solid-fuel engine.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said that the country’s military needs to go extremely tough to “thoroughly annihilate” the enemy in the event of a potential nuclear war.

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