UN extends work of experts monitoring North Korea sanctions

UNITED NATIONS – The Security Council has voted unanimously to extend the mandate for UN experts monitoring sanctions against North Korea.

The resolution adopted Wednesday emphasizes "the importance of credible, fact-based, independent assessments, analysis, and recommendations" by the experts, who recently reported that Pyongyang is flouting embargoes by sending Syria banned items for ballistic missiles and chemical weapons. Their work was extended until April 24, 2019.

Britain's deputy UN ambassador Jonathan Allen praised the panel saying it was "able to see the ways in which the North Koreans try and evade sanctions and to very systematically close those down one by one."

Allen said "it's that pressure from sanctions, and the enforcement from sanctions, that have brought us to this moment where there is a political opportunity in North Korea."