logo
U.N. report cites 'flagrant' violations by Russia and North Korea

U.N. report cites 'flagrant' violations by Russia and North Korea

UPI17-07-2025
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) walks with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, on June 17 to discuss a 'special military operation' in Russia's Kursk region. File Photo by North Korean Central News Agency/EPA
July 17 (UPI) -- Russian and North Korean officials violated U.N. resolutions regarding arms, troops and refined petroleum shipments throughout 2024 and beyond, a U.N. report says.
Evidence shows North Korea many times shipped arms and material to Russia, which trained North Korean troops for combat against Ukrainian forces, Seth Bailey, the U.S. State Department's director for Korean and Mongolian Affairs, told U.N. members on Thursday.
In exchange, Russia shipped refined petroleum products, military equipment and military technology to North Korea, Bailey said.
The actions by both nations violate U.N. resolutions, as outlined in a 29-page U.N. report compiled by its Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team and published on May 29.
The report focuses on illegal military cooperation between North Korea and Russia and says the "rapid expansion of military, political and economic cooperation' between the two nations has caused "ongoing flagrant violations" of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
"Throughout 2024, North Korea and Russia engaged in myriad unlawful activities explicitly prohibited" by the United Nations, the report says.
The violations include the transfer of arms and material, including artillery, ballistic missiles and combat vehicles, from North Korea to Russia via sea, air and rail.
North Korea also sent troops to Russia, which the Russian military trained for direct support in its war against Ukraine, according to the report.
Russia also has shipped refined petroleum products to North Korea that "far exceed the yearly United Nations Security Council-mandated cap," with payments processed via banking relations between Russia and North Korea.
"These forms of unlawful cooperation between [North Korea]and Russia contributed to Moscow's ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities, including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure," the report says.
Russia's assistance has enabled North Korea to fund its military programs and continue developing its ballistic missiles program, which is banned by the United Nations.
North Korea also "gains first-hand experience in modern warfare in return for its military support to Russia against Ukraine," the report says.
Such military support includes the deployment of 11,000 North Korean troops to Russia since October.
"The official confirmation of North Korean military support to Russia by both governments in April 2025 suggests that, at least for the foreseeable future, North Korea and Russia intend to continue and further deepen their military cooperation in contravention of relevant UNSCRs," according to the report.
U.S., South Korea hold live-fire drills near DMZ
Spectators watch an explosion at a combined U.S.-South Korea live-fire exercise at Seungjin Fire Training Field in Pocheon, South Korea on May 25, 2023. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI | License Photo
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Zelensky Went Soft on Corruption Because the U.S. Did
Zelensky Went Soft on Corruption Because the U.S. Did

Atlantic

time5 minutes ago

  • Atlantic

Zelensky Went Soft on Corruption Because the U.S. Did

Volodymyr Zelensky built a mythic reputation as a lonely bulwark against global tyranny. On Tuesday, the president of Ukraine signed that reputation away, enacting a law that gutted the independence of his country's anti-corruption agencies just as they closed in on his closest political allies, reportedly including one of his longtime business partners and a former deputy prime minister. To justify the decision, he cloaked it in an invented conspiracy, insinuating that Russian moles had implanted themselves in the machinery of justice. This is a scoundrel's playbook. Despite the ongoing war, Ukrainians swamped the streets of Kyiv in protest of their president's betrayal of democracy, forcing Zelensky to introduce new legislation reversing the bill he had just signed into law. It was a concession of error—and possibly an empty gesture, because the new bill is hardly a lock to pass the legislature. That Zelensky brazenly weakened Ukraine's anti-corruption guardrails in the first place shouldn't come as a shock. They were erected only under sustained pressure from the Obama administration as part of an explicit bargain: In exchange for military and financial support, Ukraine would rein in its oligarchs and reform its public institutions. Over time, the country drifted, however unevenly, toward a system that was more transparent, less captive to hidden hands. But in the Trump era, the United States has grown proudly tolerant of global corruption. In fact, it actively encourages its proliferation. Beyond the president's own venal example, this is deliberate policy. Brick by brick, Donald Trump has dismantled the apparatus that his predecessors built to constrain global kleptocracy, and leaders around the world have absorbed the fact that the pressure for open, democratic governance is off. Anne Applebaum: Kleptocracy, Inc. Three weeks into his current term, Trump paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act—loudly declaring that the United States wasn't going to police foreign bribery. Weeks later, America skipped a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's anti-bribery working group for the first time since its founding 30 years ago. As the head of the anti-corruption group Transparency International warned, Trump was sending 'a dangerous signal that bribery is back on the table.' For decades, the more than prosecute bribery cases; it tried to cultivate civil-society organizations that helped emerging democracies combat corruption themselves. But upon returning to the presidency, Trump destroyed USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the U.S. Institute of Peace, dismantling the constellation of government agencies that had quietly tutored investigative journalists, trained judges, and funded watchdogs. These groups weren't incidental casualties in DOGE's seemingly scattershot demolition of the American state. Trump long loathed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which he described as a 'horrible law,' an animus stoked by the fact that some of his closest associates have been accused of murky dealings abroad. Crushing programs and organizations that fight kleptocracy meshed with the 'America First' instincts of his base; the likes of Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon abhor the export of liberal values to the world. From the wreckage of these institutions, a Trump Doctrine has taken shape, one that uses American economic and political power to shield corrupt autocrats from accountability. Benjamin Netanyahu, on trial for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, has been a prime beneficiary. Just as he was preparing to testify under oath, Trump denounced the prosecution as a 'political witch hunt' and threatened to withhold U.S. aid if the trial moved forward. Given Israel's reliance on American support, the threat had bite. Not long after Trump's outburst, the court postponed Netanyahu's testimony, citing national-security concerns. Trump acts as if justice for strongmen is a moral imperative. No retaliatory measure is apparently off limits. To defend his populist ally in Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who faces charges related to an attempted coup, Trump revoked the visa of Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court justice overseeing the case. Last month, Trump threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian steel, aluminum, and agricultural exports to punish the country for Bolsonaro's prosecution. This is hard-nosed realism, not just ideological kinship. To protect himself, Trump must defend the rights of populist kleptocrats everywhere. He must discredit the sort of prosecution that he might someday face. That requires recasting malfeasance as perfectly acceptable statesmanship. Listen: The kleptocracy club By stripping anti-corruption from the moral vocabulary of American foreign policy, Trump is reengineering the global order. He's laying the foundation for a new world in which kleptocracy flourishes unfettered, because there's no longer a superpower that, even rhetorically, aspires to purge the world of corruption. Of course, the United States has never pushed as hard as it could, and ill-gotten gains have been smuggled into its bank accounts, cloaked in shell companies. Still, oligarchs were forced to disguise their thievery, because there was at least the threat of legal consequence. In the world that Trump is building, there's no need for disguise—corruption is a credential, not a liability. Zelensky is evidence of the new paradigm. Although his initial campaign for president in 2019 was backed by an oligarch, he could never be confused for Bolsonaro or Netanyahu. He didn't enrich himself by plundering the state. But now that Trump has given the world permission to turn away from the ideals of good governance, even the sainted Zelensky has seized the opportunity to protect the illicit profiteering of his friends and allies. Yet there's a legacy of the old system that Trump hasn't wholly eliminated: the institutions and civil societies that the United States spent a generation helping build. In Ukraine, those organizations and activists have refused to accept a retreat into oligarchy, and they might still preserve their governmental guardians against corruption. For now, they are all that remain between the world and a new golden age of impunity.

Democrats self-own bragging about inflation shows the left has learned NOTHING
Democrats self-own bragging about inflation shows the left has learned NOTHING

New York Post

time34 minutes ago

  • New York Post

Democrats self-own bragging about inflation shows the left has learned NOTHING

Everybody makes mistakes. Not everyone makes the same mistakes over and over again. Last week, the geniuses in charge of maintaining the Democratic Party's social media picked at a fresh wound — and showed, again, exactly why it lost the 2024 election. The blue team's official X account shared a line chart showing the change in the price of various groceries — meat, dairy, produce, etc. — over time, and asserting that 'prices are higher today than they were on [sic] July 2024.' 'Trump's America,' read the caption. The problem? The last part of the line barely went up. The blue team's official X account, with the caption 'Trump's America,' shared a chart showing the change in the price of various groceries, asserting that 'prices are higher today than they were on [sic] July 2024.' Eric Daugherty, /X And what it actually showed was a massive increase in prices between 2021 and 2024. In other words: over the course of former President Joe Biden's White House tenure. 'I would just advise Democrats not to post about inflation given their track record,' suggested conservative influencer A.G. Hamilton. 'Might save them the embarrassment of having to delete their posts after getting dunked on' — which is exactly what they did. 'This is the gang that couldn't shoot straight!' marveled Fox Business host Stuart Varney. And of course Team Trump got in on the action. The problem with the chart was that it actually showed a massive increase in prices between 2021 and 2024 – when Biden was president. RapidResponse47/X What's notable about the braindead blunder, though, is not the blunder itself. It was that it represented yet another admission, eight and a half months after they surrendered the presidency to Donald Trump for the second time in three election cycles, that the Democrats still haven't made a sincere effort at diagnosing the reasons for their unpopularity — much less addressing them. A new Wall Street Journal poll found that their party continues to suffer as a result — to the point that just 33% of Americans hold a favorable view of it, and 63% view it unfavorably. Both Donald Trump (-7) and the GOP (-11) are also underwater, but may as well be polling as well as ice cream compared to the Democrats. The same holds true of the public's view of various issues; voters still trust the GOP more than the alternative when it comes to the economy, inflation, immigration and foreign policy. If that doesn't wake Democrats up to the provenance of all their political pain, nothing will. The Left has long relied on comforting fallacies to numb the discomfort that accompanies defeat. After 2016, elected Democrats and their media allies insisted that Trump's shocking victory was only possible thanks to Russian meddling. And now, they're laboring under the misimpression that return to power can be attributed to Republicans' superior, but decepting messaging — an almost supernatural ability to compel Americans to believe that which isn't so. If only they could convince the public of the truth, they'd surely prevail. But the cold, hard truth is that it's always been about the substance, stupid — as the unflattering data they so proudly shared last week demonstrates. Kamala Harris was deposited into the dustbin of history because she was the top lieutenant in an administration that had proven a miserable failure long before her boss's implosion last summer. Americans spent the entirety of the Biden years telling pollsters that their lives were demonstrably, palpably worse as a result of historic price hikes. Biden & Co. responded to these pleas for relief by denying the existence of inflation until they couldn't any longer. Then, when they finally did implicitly admit to the effects of the nearly $2 trillion boondoggle they passed in 2021, they slapped the name 'Inflation Reduction Act' on yet another profligate spending bill that every layman in America knew would only compound the problem. There are similar stories to be told about Americans' dissatisfaction with Biden's approach to foreign policy, his abdication of his duty to secure the border, and his championing of a radical social agenda that maintains up is down, left is right, and black is white. Their stubborn refusal to grapple with this incontrovertible truth is also reportedly set to be reflected in an upcoming 2024 autopsy conducted by the DNC. The New York Times reports that it will 'steer clear of the decisions made by the Biden-turned-Harris campaign,' and instead 'focus more on outside groups and super PACs that spent hundreds of millions of dollars aiding the Biden and Harris campaigns through advertising, voter registration drives and turnout efforts.' It's like watching a restaurant serving inedible food invest in new plateware. The gripe has never been with the Democrats' presentation or voters' tastes. It's with the product itself.

At least 34 killed in attack on east Congo church by Islamic State-backed rebels, civil leader says
At least 34 killed in attack on east Congo church by Islamic State-backed rebels, civil leader says

NBC News

time35 minutes ago

  • NBC News

At least 34 killed in attack on east Congo church by Islamic State-backed rebels, civil leader says

GOMA, Congo — The death toll from an attack on a Catholic church in eastern Congo by Islamic State-backed rebels has risen to 34, according to a civil society leader. "The bodies of the victims are still at the scene of the tragedy, and volunteers are preparing how to bury them in a mass grave that we are preparing in a compound of the Catholic church," Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda, in the Ituri province, told The Associated Press. At least five other people were killed in an earlier attack on the nearby village of Machongani, from where a search is ongoing. "They took several people into the bush; we do not know their destination or their number," Lossa Dhekana, a civil society leader in Ituri, told the AP Both attacks are believed to have been carried out by members of the Allied Democratic Force (ADF) armed with guns and machetes. The military has confirmed at least 10 fatalities, while local media reports put the total death toll at more than 40. Duranthabo said attackers stormed the church in Komanda town at around 1 a.m. Several houses and shops were also burnt. Lt. Jules Ngongo, a Congolese army spokesperson in Ituri province, confirmed 10 killed in the church attack. Video footage from the scene shared online appeared to show burning structures and bodies on the floor of the church. Those who were able to identify some of the victims wailed while others stood in shock. A U.N.-backed radio station said 43 people were killed, citing security sources. It said the attackers came from a stronghold around 7 miles from the center of Komanda and fled before security forces could arrive. Duranthabo condemned the attack "in a town where all the security officials are present." He added: "We demand military intervention as soon as possible, since we are told the enemy is still near our town." Eastern Congo has suffered deadly attacks in recent years by armed groups, including the ADF and Rwanda-backed rebels. The ADF, which has ties to the Islamic State, operates in the borderland between Uganda and Congo and often targets civilians. The group killed dozens of people in Ituri earlier this month in what a United Nations spokesperson described as a bloodbath. The ADF was formed by disparate small groups in Uganda in the late 1990s following alleged discontent with President Yoweri Museveni. In 2002, following military assaults by Ugandan forces, the group moved its activities to neighboring Congo and has since been responsible for the killings of thousands of civilians. In 2019, it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), which has long struggled against the rebel group, has been facing attacks since the renewed hostilities between the Rwanda-backed M23.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store