Panmunjom, South Korea – The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday called on Russia and China to reverse course, punish North Korea for its misdeeds and block U.N. oversight of the isolated nation’s efforts to evade sanctions over its weapons program. asked to do so.
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the remarks during a visit to the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily fortified border between North and South Korea, which is technically at war.
Her visit to South Korea came after Russia rejected the annual renewal of a multinational panel of experts that has over the past 15 years overseen implementation of U.N. sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. .
Russia’s veto and China’s abstention will only “strengthen” North Korea’s efforts to evade international sanctions and “shield” responsibility, Thomas-Greenfield said.
“Hiding the truth doesn’t change the truth. Rewarding bad behavior only encourages it,” she told reporters. “We call on Russia and China to change course and once again call on North Korea to choose diplomacy and come to the negotiating table to engage in constructive dialogue.”
The U.S. government is working with South Korea, Japan, and other Security Council partners to continue monitoring sanctions enforcement and other work conducted by Panel Commissioner Thomas-Greenfield. The plan is to consider “new methods and some unconventional ways of thinking.” Said.
Later, in Seoul, she met with a group of young North Korean defectors and praised their escape to South Korea, calling it “courageous and moving.”
“One of my priorities is to raise the profile of human rights violations in North Korea and to amplify your voices as fugitives,” she said, referring to North Korea by its initials, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, its official name. he said. Korean.
Thomas-Greenfield arrived on Sunday and will meet with President Yoon Seok-yeol and foreign and defense ministers in Seoul on Monday to discuss ways to thwart North Korea’s weapons program and promote human rights in the closed state. Ta.
She will also travel to Japan until Saturday, where she will meet with families of Japanese people abducted by North Korea in the early 2000s and visit Nagasaki, where a U.S. nuclear bomb was dropped in 1945.
South Korea and Japan are both allies of the United States and members of the Security Council.
