11 MSMT Member States Including AS-South Korea Promise To Implement UN DK Sanctions On North Korea

UNSPLASH/JaeHong Park ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - The United States and 10 other countries including South Korea, have promised to fully implement UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea.

This came after Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Britain, and the US held the inaugural meeting of the Multilateral Sanction Monitoring Team (MSMT) in Washington on Wednesday and discussed council sanctions against Pyongyang.

"The MSMT member state has the same commitment to upholding international peace and security, maintaining the global non-proliferation regime, and overcoming threats from the DPRK's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile (Korean People's Democratic Republic)", said a joint statement reported by ANTARA from Anadolu, Friday, November 21.

MSMT was formed in October last year following a veto by Russia in March 2024 which dissolved the Expert Panel of Committee 1718 of the UN Security Council.

MSMT's goal is to oversee the full implementation of UN DK resolution on North Korea by issuing reports and information based on strict investigations into violations of sanctions and relevant avoidance efforts as well as law enforcement efforts.

"We reiterate that the path to dialogue remains open, and call on all countries to join global efforts to maintain international peace and security in the face of continuing threats from North Korea and parties facilitating violations of UN DK," the statement said.

Last year, Russia vetoed a draft resolution spearheaded by the US, calling for an extension of the North Korean Sanctions Committee's Expert Panel mandate for another year.