MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. The UN Security Council (UNSC) can no longer act like it has grown accustomed to regarding issues pertaining to the Korean Peninsula, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The diplomat recalled that on March 28, the UN Security Council considered a potential extension of the mandate of the group of experts of one of its subsidiary bodies - Committee 1718 on Sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) - for another year after it expires on April 30. "Russia voted against the draft UN Security Council resolution proposed by the US. It is clear to us that the [UN Security] Council can no longer act on the Korean Peninsula issues according to the old patterns," she pointed out.

According to Zakharova, international sanctions over the years have not helped change the security situation in the region for the better. "On the contrary, in the absence of mechanisms to revise sanctions measures towards easing them, this instrument remains a serious irritant that hinders confidence-building and the maintenance of political dialogue. UN Security Council sanctions are accompanied by severe humanitarian consequences for North Korea’s civilian population, and this effect is further aggravated by illegal unilateral coercive measures," she said. "At present, a new round of escalation of the situation in the region is being observed, caused by the increasingly aggressive military activities of the United States and its allies. This is rightly perceived in Pyongyang as a threat to national security and the historical state system, forcing it to retaliate," the diplomat emphasized.

Loss of objectivity

Zakharova pointed out that the Group of Experts of the UNSC 1718 Committee "has lost all standards of objectivity and impartiality, which should be inherent characteristics of its mandate, and has turned into an obedient tool of North Korea’s geopolitical opponents." "There is no point in maintaining it in this form," she added.

According to the spokeswoman, Russia nevertheless did its best to bring the UN Security Council members to a compromise solution. "We proposed establishing specific conditions for sanctions in order to review them and make further decisions based on them," Zakharova explained. "Such a system, which allows for a flexible response to current trends in peace and security issues, works in most UN Security Council sanctions regimes. In this case, it would even be possible to give the team of experts another chance to radically rethink its tasks and, refusing to serve the interests of a narrow group of countries, become a truly objective professional assistant to the members of the Security Council," she said.

The diplomat emphasized that such a break in the UN Security Council sanctions policy could open "new positive horizons in solving the problems of the Korean Peninsula."

"However, our proposals were not only ignored by the draft's authors, but were literally ‘met with bayonets.’ In this way, the US and its allies clearly showed that their interest does not go beyond the task of ‘strangling’ North Korea by any means and that a peaceful solution is not on the agenda at all," she added. "We are still trying to convey to our colleagues in the UN Security Council the rationale behind our idea, but if it still does not find a response, the entire responsibility for the termination of the Expert Panel will fall on the representatives of the West," the spokeswoman pointed out.

Zakharova stressed that Moscow strongly rejects any accusations and threats in this regard, reiterating Russia's responsible approach to fulfilling its international obligations, as well as its focus on developing friendly relations with North Korea. "We urge the parties concerned to refrain from escalatory steps and to focus on finding ways of detente, taking into account known security priorities," she concluded.