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U.S. Ambassador to nan United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Wednesday that Washington and its friends were looking for caller ways to show U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI
SEOUL, April 17 (UPI) -- The United States is moving connected options "both wrong and extracurricular nan U.N. system" to show sanctions against North Korea, Washington's apical envoy to nan United Nations said Wednesday during a sojourn to Seoul.
U.S. Ambassador to nan United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield made nan remark after Russia vetoed a solution past period to widen nan U.N. Security Council's sanction-monitoring Panel of Experts. She is connected an Asia travel that includes stops successful South Korea and Japan.
"I look guardant to engaging pinch some nan Republic of Korea and Japan, and like-minded [countries] arsenic well, connected trying to create options some wrong nan U.N. arsenic good arsenic extracurricular of nan U.N.," Thomas-Greenfield said.
"The constituent present is that we cannot let nan activity that nan Panel of Experts were doing to collapse," she said. "We person to proceed to support eyes connected and study connected nan forbidden activities of nan DPRK and efforts to break nan sanctions that person been put successful place."
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is nan charismatic sanction of North Korea.
The Security Council imposed sanctions connected North Korea successful 2006 aft Pyongyang's first atomic trial and has added respective rounds since. The Panel of Experts was established successful 2009 to thief show compliance. Its instruction had been renewed annually until nan ballot past month.
Russia's veto came aft nan sheet released a report citing galore sanctions violations by North Korea, including an estimated $3 cardinal generated from cyberattacks utilized to money nan regime's illicit weapons program.
The sheet besides said it was investigating galore accounts of arms transfers betwixt Russia and North Korea.
South Korean defense officials said recently that nan North has shipped astir 7,000 containers of munitions to Russia for its warfare against Ukraine. Moscow, meanwhile, is wide believed to beryllium sharing precocious weapons exertion and delivering shipments of lipid to thief Pyongyang evade sanctions.
Thomas-Greenfield said that Russia and China -- which abstained connected nan Panel of Experts ballot and has sided pinch Moscow successful blocking different Security Council actions against North Korea -- would proceed to effort to impede sanctions monitoring efforts.
"Russia has already been breaking nan sanctions regime," Thomas-Greenfield said. "They have, on pinch China, continued to protect nan DPRK from being held accountable. And truthful I don't expect that they will cooperate aliases work together pinch immoderate efforts that we make to find different path, but that is not going to extremity america from uncovering them."
During her four-day sojourn to South Korea, Thomas-Greenfield met pinch officials including Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and President Yoon Suk Yeol. On Tuesday, nan envoy visited nan Demilitarized Zone that separates nan 2 Koreas, where she called for Pyongyang to return to nan negotiating table.
"We stay unfastened to speech -- real, productive speech -- without preconditions," Thomas-Greenfield said. "All nan DPRK has to do is opportunity yes, and show up to nan array successful bully faith."
Thomas-Greenfield is scheduled to depart for Japan later connected Wednesday to proceed her two-country trip.
