US convenes emergency UN Security Council meeting on North Korea

On Monday, Washington will convene an emergency UN Security Council meeting due to its disappointment with Russia’s stance, said John Degory, a public affairs officer of the US mission to the UN.

"I can confirm meeting on Monday," he told TASS, when asked by TASS whether the UN Security Council would convene following US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley’s statements on her disappointment by Russia’s amendments to a report from the UN’s independent Panel of Experts on the implementation of UN North Korea sanctions.

Earlier on Thursday, the press service of the Russian mission to the UN said that the amendments, put forward by the Russian side, have been introduced into the report by the Committee 1718 panel of experts on sanctions against Pyongyang. Those amendments have only increased the quality of the report, the mission said.

"The situation with the report has once again demonstrated the importance of the expert panel’s cooperation with the group of experts," the mission added.

On August 31, Russia’s UN envoy, Vasily Nebenzya, told reporters in the wake of closed UN Security Council consultations on North Korea that Russia had blocked the council’s discussion on implementation of sanctions against Pyongyang until amendments are introduced to the report.

On August 24, Russia blocked the adoption of the UN sanctions committee agenda, but its chairman refused to reflect this stance in the report. Nebenzya said shortly after that Russia and other delegations "expressed their concern about regular leaks of information from the committee, and requested an inquiry into them.".