North Korea has harshly criticized the multilateral monitoring group of the sanctions against it promoted by the United States and defined it as “completely illegal and illegitimate”, threatening the 11 countries involved “in the new defamatory campaign” that they would pay a “dear price”. Its very existence “constitutes a denial of the UN Charter”, thundered the North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Huiin a statement relaunched by the official KCNA agency, accusing the US of pursuing its “hegemonic interests” and warning of the “inevitable reactions” in response to what it described as a “violation of the sovereignty” of the hermit country.
Launched in Seoul on 16 October under the name of Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, the initiative, in addition to the USA, involves Australia, Canada, South Korea, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and is intended to vireport on the implementation of UN sanctions against Pyongyang, publishing information based “on rigorous investigation of violations and attempted circumventions.” In the crosshairs, the development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles after the Russian veto at the beginning of 2024 caused in April the end of the monitoring of the UN group of experts which for 15 years followed the development of the arsenals of Kim Jong’s regime -un, marking the increasingly close ties between Pyongyang and Moscow and between the supreme leader and the head of the Kremlin Vladimir Putin.
North Korea has been accused of evading sanctions with methods such as ship-to-ship transfers, with the alleged support of neighboring countries such as China and Russia, holders of permanent seats in the UN Security Council.
Choe’s heavy criticism follows a Seoul intelligence agency report that the North has begun “large-scale” troop deployments of 12,000 soldiers to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with 1,500 special forces in training to Vladivostok, together with the sending of weapons. The Foreign Minister, in her statement, did not address the matter, while Pyongyang denied arms trade with Russia. However, satellite images seem to support Seoul’s version: one of the three presented on Friday by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) was captured by the South. “The photo was taken by a satellite under our management,” said a government source from Seoul at Yonhap, equipped with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capable of collecting data regardless of weather conditions thanks to remote sensing systems. In other words, technological leverage is increasingly strategic when faced with complex and unpredictable scenarios.