The 15-member UN security council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The most bizarre moments from the Kim-Trump summit Read moreBut the United States and Russia have recently shown cracks in the unity of the council over the sanctions. Washington has “evidence of consistent and wide-ranging Russian violations” of the sanctions, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said on Monday. Russia was helping North Korea illegally obtain fuel through transfers at sea, had refused to expel a North Korean whom the security council blacklisted last year, and had pushed for changes to an independent UN report on sanctions violations to cover up breaches by Russians, she said. Washington has tracked some 148 cases this year of tankers delivering fuel to North Korea in breach of a UN cap of 500,000 barrels a year.

Source: The Guardian September 23, 2018 02:03 UTC