DPRK (North Korea)
In sanctions related developments, the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee met on 11 December. On 31 December the Committee issued its annual report (S/2014/896) and posted updated guidelines on its website. The guidelines included a new provision imposing a time limit of nine months on any holds placed by Committee members to consider a proposal.
November 2014
On 10 November, the Chair of the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Sylvie Lucas (Luxembourg), briefed Council members in consultations on the work of the Committee. Several Council members made references to the human rights situation in the DPRK and said that the Council needed to address it. Prior to the briefing, on 7 November, the Council had received a letter from the DPRK (S/2014/797) that strongly condemned “anti-DPRK propaganda leaflet-scattering operations conducted by so-called non-governmental organisations” claiming that they were “intentionally tolerated and even patronized by South Korean authorities” and urged the UN and other international organisations to take action to prevent further such operations from taking place. The letter was not discussed in the consultations on 10 November. On 18 November, in its annual resolution on the human rights situation in the DPRK, the General Assembly’s Third Committee decided to submit the report of the Human Rights Council mandated DPRK Commission of Inquiry to the Security Council and encouraged the Council to consider relevant recommendations and take appropriate action, including through “consideration of referral of the situation in the DPRK to the ICC” and “effective targeted sanctions against those who appear to be most responsible for acts that the Commission has said may constitute crimes against humanity.” It was adopted by a vote of 111 in favour, 19 against and 55 abstentions (A/C.3/69/L.28/Rev.1). A Cuban amendment that would have replaced the provisions referring to the Security Council with a call for a new cooperative approach in the consideration of the human rights situation in the DPRK was defeated by a vote of 40 in favour, 77 against and 50 abstentions. In a 24 November letter to the Council, the DPRK rejected the resolution and stated that the hostile policy of the US compels the DPRK not to exercise restraint any longer in conducting a new nuclear test (S/2014/849).
August 2014
On 5 August, Council members were briefed in consultations by the chair of the 1718 DPRK Committee, Ambassador Gary Quinlan (Australia) on the quarterly update on the North Korean sanctions. On 20 August, under “any other business”, Council members discussed the 18 August DPRK request for the Council to hold an urgent meeting on the US-Republic of Korea joint military exercises. (The DPRK’s letter was a follow-up to the same request it made on 21 July.) Council members were not in favour of holding such a meeting.
July 2014
The Council discussed DPRK’s ballistic missile launches, a total of six short-range ballistic missiles were launched into its eastern coastal waters on 29 June, 9 July and 13 July, under “Other Matters” following consultations on Libya on 17 July. After the meeting, in agreed-upon “elements to the press”, Council President Ambassador Richard Eugène Gasana (Rwanda) said the Council condemned the launches “as violations of Security Council resolutions” and urged the DPRK to comply with relevant Council resolutions. In a 21 July letter to the Council (S/2014/512), the DPRK claimed that the launches were a “self-defensive exercise” in light of the “provocative ongoing joint military exercises by the US and South Korea” and called for an urgent Council meeting on the joint exercises. On 11 July, Australia, France and the US circulated a letter (S/2014/501) to Council members summarising the 17 April Arria-formula meeting on the report of the Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on human rights in the DPRK (A/HRC/25/63). In the letter, the countries said the Council should formally discuss the CoI’s findings of widespread and systematic human rights violations and consider how to hold those responsible accountable.
