US, South Korea, Japan unveil new team to monitor North Korea sanctions

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States, South Korea and Japan on Wednesday announced the launch of a new multinational team to monitor the enforcement of sanctions against North Korea after Russia and China thwarted monitoring activities at the United Nations.

The mechanism, named the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, has been introduced after Russia in March rejected the annual renewal of a U.N. panel of experts that had over the past 15 years overseen the implementation of sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. China abstained from the vote.

The team is meant to continue the U.N. panel's work, including issuing regular reports on sanctions enforcement, and will involve the participation of eight other countries including Britain, France and Germany, a South Korean official said.

Its launch was unveiled at a joint press conference in Seoul by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun and Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano, alongside ambassadors of the eight countries, ahead of their talks in Seoul.

"There have been many discussions about how to build an effective monitoring system that can replace the U.N. panel, but even during that process, cases of North Korea violating sanctions continued to occur, so we thought that we should not delay any longer and should quickly fill the gap," Kim told the news conference.

While the allies will continue to seek ways to reinstate the U.N. scheme, the team is open to all countries that are willing to help ensure the implementation of sanctions, Kim added.

Campbell said Russia's veto was likely influenced by the U.N. panel's previous reporting on its illegal procurement of military equipment and munitions from North Korea for its war in Ukraine.

"The potential for this to be a major effort in tracking and holding to account steps that North Korea is taking across a range of provocative actions is real," Campbell said. "So this is a big step in the right direction."

Washington and Seoul say North Korea and Russia have made illicit military transactions. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied arms transfers but have vowed to boost military ties, clinching a mutual defence treaty at a summit in June.

The new initiative might lack the international legitimacy granted to a U.N.-backed operation, but could monitor North Korea more effectively, free from efforts by Moscow and Beijing to downplay Pyongyang's suspected sanctions evasion at the world body, said Ethan Hee-seok Shin, a legal analyst at the Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group.

"Going forward, the like-minded governments should also consider utilising the sanctions to target the individuals and entities in North Korea and elsewhere that enable Pyongyang to commit grave human rights violations," Shin said.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Ed Davies)