US pushes back at Russias protest over South Korean sanctions
The United States is welcoming South Korean
sanctions imposed on Russian vessels suspected of transporting weapons from
North Korea, despite Russian protests.
“We applaud the recent actions taken by the
ROK to disrupt and expose arms transfers between the DPRK and Russia –
including the sanctions … on two Russian vessels involved in arms transfers to
Russia,” a State Department spokesperson said.
“It is important for the international
community to send a strong, unified message that the DPRK must halt its
irresponsible behavior, abide by its obligations under U.N. Security Council
resolutions, and engage in serious and sustained diplomacy,” the spokesperson
said Friday via email to the VOA Korean Service.
South Korea on April 2 unilaterally sanctioned
two Russian vessels involved in delivering military supplies from North Korea
to Russia.
The next day at a press briefing, Russian
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Seoul’s move “an
unfriendly step” that “leads only to escalation of tensions” and “will affect
South Korea-Russia relations in a negative way.”
She said Moscow would respond to the
sanctions but did not specify how.
On Friday, Russia said it had summoned South
Korea’s ambassador.
The South Korean sanctions followed Russia’s
veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the annual extension of
the U.N. experts panel that monitors sanctions on North Korea. The panel’s
mandate ends at the end of April.
The ties between
Pyongyang and Moscow have been growing since a summit in
September. Since then, North Korea has been providing munitions that Russia
needs to fight its war in Ukraine.
“The ROK government getting involved in
applying sanctions, seizures, and other active counterproliferation authorities
and capabilities against the North is a huge step forward in joint cooperation
to counter, protect and contain the DPRK regime’s weapons exports,” said David
Asher, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
Asher worked on disrupting North Korea’s
illicit financial, trading and weapons of mass destruction networks under the
George W. Bush administration.
In an email to VOA on Monday, Asher added, “I
fully expect ROK-U.S.-Japan
cooperation to expand in counterproliferation, including the
identification and targeting of weapons supply networks using intelligence
operations, law enforcement, and sanctions.”
A day after announcing the sanctions, Seoul
said it had seized a vessel that was suspected of violating U.N. sanctions on
North Korea. South Korea said it was investigating the DEYI, a cargo ship that
was en route to
Russia from North Korea via China, after seizing it in waters off
the South Korean port city of Yeosu.
“This reinforces that countries can implement
U.N. sanctions, on their own, as they have responsibility to do so,” especially
after Russia blocked the U.N. experts panel’s mandate, said Anthony Ruggiero,
senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Ruggiero has over
19 years working on financial sanctions and proliferation issues, including
ones involving North Korea.
There is a broad international and domestic
set of legal authorities that countries like South Korea could rely on to go
after illicit exports and maritime activities by North Korea, but it is a
matter of “whether countries are willing to stop” vessels making illegal
actions, Ruggiero said during a telephone interview on Monday.
A U.N. Security Council resolution passed in
2017 authorizes member states to seize, inspect, freeze and impound vessels in
their territorial waters found to be conducting illicit activities with
Pyongyang and carrying banned goods from North Korea.
A State Department spokesperson told VOA’s
Korean Service on Thursday that the U.S. is “coordinating closely with the ROK
in its investigation of this ship in connection with U.N. sanctions
violations.”
“Despite Russia’s veto of the 1718 Committee
Panel of Experts mandate in order to bury reporting on its violation of U.S.
Security Council resolutions, U.N. sanctions on the DPRK remain in place, and
all U.N. member states are still required to implement them,” the spokesperson
said.
Nate Evans, the spokesperson for the U.S.
Mission to the U.N., said Monday that U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda
Thomas-Greenfield will travel to South Korea and Japan next week to discuss
ways to monitor international sanctions on North Korea.
South Korea estimated in
March that North Korea has shipped about 7,000 containers full
of munitions to Russia since last year. The U.S. assessed the same month the
number of containers to be 10,000.
Joshua Stanton, an attorney based in
Washington who helped draft the Sanctions and Policy Enforcement Act in 2016,
told VOA on Monday via email that Seoul could seize ships carrying weapons from
North Korea to Russia if certain criteria are met.
Seoul could do so “if South Korea has
reasonable cause to believe that the vessel is engaged in sanctions evasion,
and if one of the following conditions is also met: the [vessel’s] flag state
consents, the vessel is stateless, or the ship enters a South Korean port.”
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