South Korea-US-Japan launch new mechanism to monitor North Korea sanctions

South Korea, the United States and Japan have established a multilateral team to monitor sanctions on North Korea, following Russia’s veto that ended the mandate of the United Nations’ panel overseeing sanctions enforcement.

The new team, known as the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (‘MSMT’), will work with partner nations to track and report violations of UN sanctions targeting North Korea, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported, citing a joint statement published by the Foreign Ministry in Seoul.

The move comes seven months after Russia blocked the renewal of the UN panel of experts responsible for overseeing the sanctions, which expired on 30 April.

The MSMT will retain much of the UN structure to ‘monitor and report violations and evasions of the sanctions measures stipulated in the relevant UNSC resolutions,’ Yonhap reported, quoting the joint statement. ‘The goal of the new mechanism is to assist the full implementation of the UN sanctions on the DPRK by publishing information based on rigorous inquiry into sanctions violations and evasions attempts,’ the statement said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (‘DPRK’).

Eight countries – France, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – will join South Korea, the US and Japan in the MSMT.