For the past 14 years, a panel of United Nations experts has regularly reported on North Korea’s expanding nuclear and missile programs and its efforts to defy U.N. Security Council sanctions. Their latest report, on March 7, offers 615 pages on North Korea’s activities, including 58 suspected cyberattacks on cryptocurrency-related companies between 2017 and 2023, netting about $3 billion to fund development of weapons of mass destruction. But now these eyes and ears have been removed.

In a U.N. Security Council vote on March 28, Russia vetoed an extension of the panel’s work, which it had previously supported. China abstained, and 13 other members voted for it. As a result, the panel that monitored the sanctions against North Korea is to expire at the end of this month, and the rest of the world will know even less than it does now about North Korea’s quest.

This was a gift from Russian President Vladimir Putin to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, undermining sanctions that the United Nations has imposed in recent years. More than that, it suggests yet another setback — again, perpetrated by Russia — to the post-Cold War struggle to curtail the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

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UNSC Report, 7 March 2024 

UN Security Council Resolutions on North Korea

Russian veto ends U.N. panel monitoring North Korea sanctions