North Korea Accused of Building New Missiles
While being hammered by UN sanctions and its pledge for denuclearization, North Korea is still secretly pursuing its nuclear and missile programs, according to a report commissioned by the UN Security Council.
Aside from the continued pursuit of building missiles, illegal activities were also cited by the report that include selling weapons overseas and massive illegal transfers of oil products. All of these are violations of UN sanctions.
The report said: “[North Korea] has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018.”
This new UN report appears to confirm media reports that suggested new information, including satellite images, show that North Korea could be in the process of building new missiles.
The confidential report was submitted to the UN Security Council on Friday by a panel of independent experts.
Russia’s Involvement
The US has warned Russia sbout its possible involvement of helping Pyongyang evade UNSC resolutions.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has pointed fingers at Russia. At the Asian security forum in Singapore, Pompeo told reporters that the U.S. has new, credible reports that Russia is violating U.N. sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers.
He warned that Trump’s administration takes “very seriously” any violations, and called for them to be roundly condemned and reversed.
“If these reports prove accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation. This is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow,” he added.
“We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea,” he said. “Any violation that detracts from the world’s goal of finally, fully denuclearizing North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously.”
Meeting of the Century
US President Donald Trump and and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un met for what is considered the meeting of century on July 12, 2018, in Singapore.
Looking back, the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un on July 12, 2018 has yielded positive outcomes. Both nations achieved what they wanted in the first place. The US has been very vocal about the denuclearisation of the communist regime. Finally, Kim Jong Un made this possible by telling the world his regime reaffirmed commitment to “complete denuclearisation.”
President Trump in return vowed that the US will end the “very provocative war games” on the Korean peninsula and vowed to provide “security guarantees” to North Korea.
But with the recent reports that disclosed that North Korea is secretly building missiles and nukes again could jeopardize the pledge for both nations to start new relations. Though North Korea has made no comments about the recent accusation, if proven true, this could be a big blow to US-North Korea relations.
