UNITED NATIONS - The US Ambassador to the United Nations said on April 19 that she hoped to find a new way to ensure sanctions enforcement on North Korea by May, after Russia and China thwarted the renewal of monitoring activities.

Ms Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Washington and its allies were looking at multiple options both inside and outside the UN to replace a panel of experts that has over the past 15 years monitored the implementation of sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes.

Russia rejected the annual renewal of the panel in March, while China abstained from the vote.

Asked whether the US and its allies could establish an alternative by the time the current panel’s mandate expires at the end of April, Ms Thomas-Greenfield told reporters in Tokyo: “That would be the optimal thing to start next month. I don’t know that we will move it that fast. But that’s my hope.

“We’re working to do something in the (UN) General Assembly. We are pushing the (UN) Secretariat through the Secretary General to do something out of his office, but we are also looking at options outside of the UN,” she said, adding that those could be under the auspices of the Group of Seven, or with think-tanks or research entities.

“There may be not just one option. It may be looking at two or three different options that will get us the information that we need,” she said. REUTERS