The United States has called an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council for September 17 as it steps up pressure on countries it says are violating sanctions against North Korea.
The U.S. mission said in a statement on September 14 that the meeting was called because of “recent efforts by some member states to undermine and obstruct North Korea sanctions implementation.”
The agenda for the meeting, set for 10 a.m. (4 p.m. in Prague), will be "to discuss the implementation and enforcement of UN sanctions on North Korea."
The statement did not name any specific countries, but U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley on September 13 accused Russia of altering an independent United Nations report to cover up Moscow’s alleged violation of the sanctions.
Haley and other diplomats claim that Russia pressured independent monitors to amend the report.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one diplomat said the amended report removed some references to Russians accused of breaching North Korea sanctions.
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.
Diplomats told news agencies that Russia blocked the original report because it disagreed with the findings.
Security Council sanctions were imposed on Pyongyang in 2006 after its first nuclear test. It has increased their severity after further nuclear tests and an increasingly sophisticated ballistic-missile program by North Korea.
On September 13, the United States imposed sanctions on two information technology companies based in China and Russia for supporting Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.
