US Diplomat Exposes North Korea’s Secret Military Ties to Russia

A US diplomat briefed UN member states on Thursday about a recent report from an international North Korea sanctions monitoring team at the UN in New York, focusing on military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, the State Department announced.

Seth Bailey, the department’s director for Korean and Mongolian affairs, presented the briefing on the first report by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT). This group was established in October last year to monitor and report violations and evasions of UN sanctions on North Korea.

The MSMT was formed after a UN expert panel, tasked with monitoring sanctions enforcement, was disbanded in April last year due to Russia’s veto of a resolution to extend its mandate. The new group comprises 11 countries, including South Korea, the United States, Japan, Australia, and Canada.

According to the State Department’s media note, Director Bailey detailed evidence of North Korea’s arms and materiel transfers to Russia, Russia’s transfer of military technology to North Korea, and Russia’s training of North Korean troops on Russian soil.

The department added that Director Bailey reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea and its determination to hold the country accountable for UN sanctions violations.

The diplomat also noted that the MSMT aims to continue publishing timely, globally relevant, and fact-based reports on North Korea’s UN sanctions violations across a range of topics.

The first MSMT report, released in late May, found that Russia has provided North Korea with air defense systems, electronic warfare jamming devices, and other military support since late last year, in violation of UN sanctions.

Thursday’s briefing comes amid deepening bilateral cooperation between Russia and North Korea, as evidenced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s recent visit to Pyongyang and North Korea’s reported decision to send additional military personnel to Russia. (Yonhap)