The United States has called an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council in response to what it says are efforts by some countries "to undermine and obstruct" sanctions against North Korea.
The US Mission announced on Friday that the meeting for Monday will "discuss the implementation and enforcement of UN sanctions on North Korea".
The mission didn't name any countries, but US Ambassador Nikki Haley accused Russia on Thursday of pressuring an independent panel of UN experts to alter a report on North Korea sanctions that included alleged violations "implicating Russian actors".
American Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has said some countries are undermining the sanctions against North Korea. Source: AAP
Haley said the panel should release the original report, which cited "a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products" for North Korea in violation of UN sanctions. It said some products allegedly were off-loaded from Russian ships, which were identified in the report.
A summary of the experts report obtained in early August by The Associated Press also said North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs.
And it said North Korea is violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions.
The Security Council initially imposed sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear test in 2006 and has made them tougher and tougher in response to further nuclear tests and an increasingly sophisticated ballistic missile program.
Haley said earlier this year that successively tough Security Council sanctions resolutions adopted unanimously had cut off all North Korean exports, 90 per cent of its trade, and disbanded its pool of workers send abroad to earn hard currency.
Many diplomats and analysts credit the sanctions with helping promote the thaw in relations between North Korea and South Korea as well as the June meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at which they agreed to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
