Washington——

The United States has welcomed South Korea’s sanctions on Russian ships suspected of transporting weapons from North Korea, despite Russian protests.

“We applaud South Korea’s recent actions to disrupt and expose arms transfers between North Korea and Russia, including imposing sanctions on two Russian ships involved in arms transfers to Russia,” a State Department spokesperson said.

“The international community must send a strong, unified message that North Korea must cease its irresponsible behavior, comply with its obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions, and engage in serious and sustained diplomacy,” the spokesman said via email on Friday. U.S. Zhiyin Korean group.

On April 2, South Korea unilaterally sanctioned two Russian ships involved in transporting military supplies from North Korea to Russia.

At a press conference the next day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Seoul’s move an “unfriendly step” that “will only lead to an escalation of tensions” and “will have a negative impact on South Korea-Russia relations.” “.

She said Moscow would respond to the sanctions but did not specify how.

On Friday, Russia said it had summoned South Korea’s ambassador.

The South Korean sanctions come after Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for annual extensions of the U.N. panel of experts overseeing sanctions on North Korea. The panel’s term ends at the end of April.

Relations between Pyongyang and Moscow have been growing since their September summit. Since then, North Korea has been providing Russia with ammunition for the war in Ukraine.

“The South Korean government’s engagement in enforcing sanctions, seizures, and other aggressive counterproliferation authorities and capabilities against North Korea is a step forward in working together to combat, protect, and contain the North Korean regime’s arms exports,” said Senior Researcher David Asher. A giant step forward.” at the Hudson Institute.

Asher worked under the George W. Bush administration to disrupt North Korea’s illicit financial, trade and weapons of mass destruction networks.

Asher added in an email to VOA on Monday, “I fully expect South Korea, the United States, and Japan to expand cooperation on counterproliferation, including using intelligence operations, law enforcement, and sanctions to identify and target weapons supply networks.”

A day after the sanctions were announced, Seoul said it had seized a ship suspected of violating U.N. sanctions against North Korea. South Korea said it seized a cargo ship “DEYI” in the waters near the South Korean port city of Yeosu. The cargo ship was heading from North Korea to Russia via China.

“This reinforces that countries can impose U.N. sanctions on their own because they have a responsibility to do so,” especially after Russia blocked the authorization of a U.N. panel of experts, said Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Ruggiero has more than 19 years of experience working on financial sanctions and proliferation issues, including those involving North Korea.

Countries such as South Korea can rely on a broad array of international and domestic legal authorities to pursue North Korea’s illegal exports and maritime activities, but the question is “whether countries are willing to stop” ships from engaging in illegal behavior, Ruggiero said in a phone interview on Monday.

A 2017 U.N. Security Council resolution authorizes member states to seize, inspect, freeze and seize ships within their territorial waters found to be conducting illegal activities with Pyongyang and carrying prohibited goods from North Korea.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Korea Service on Thursday that the United States is “coordinating closely with South Korea to investigate the ship’s violations of U.N. sanctions.”

“Despite Russia’s veto of the 1718 Committee expert panel’s mandate to cover up reports that it violated U.S. Security Council resolutions, U.N. sanctions on North Korea remain in place and all U.N. member states are still required to implement them,” the spokesperson said.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield will travel to South Korea and Japan next week to discuss ways to monitor international sanctions against North Korea, U.S. mission spokesman Nate Evans said on Monday.

South Korea estimated in March that North Korea had shipped about 7,000 containers filled with ammunition to Russia since last year. The number of containers assessed in the United States in the same month was 10,000.

Joshua Stanton, a Washington lawyer who helped draft the 2016 Sanctions and Policy Enforcement Act, told VOA via email on Monday that Seoul could seize ships carrying weapons from North Korea to Russia if certain criteria are met. .

Seoul can do so “if South Korea has reasonable grounds to believe that the vessel is evading sanctions and also meets one of the following conditions: [vessel’s] The flag state agrees and the ship becomes stateless, or the ship enters a Korean port. “