DPRK Sanctions Panel of Experts - S/RES/1874 (2009)

S/RES/1874 deals the establishment of a Panel of Experts to address the issues of non-proliferation and nuclear weapons in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in addition to the sanctions from S/RES/1718. The resolution is a response to nuclear test that Korea conducted in May of 2009 and has some of the same calls that took place in the previous resolution. There is a call for inspection for all cargo to and from the DPRK and there are new directions that the sanctions regime should take through the Panel of Experts.

DPRK to chair arms control

Amidst of my series of posts analyzing the sanctions regime that has been established to counter North Korea's advances in pursuing weapons of mass destruction, it was announced that the country has been selected to be the Chair of the Disarmament Conference. It should been common sense that a country that is under UN sanctions for violating arms control agreements is not eligible to chair a conference on disarmament, but the regional rotation has taken precedence. I hope that the international community and public opinion can revisit this decision and remind why S/RES/1718, S/RES/1874 and S/RES/1985 were established in the recent years. The sanctions are still in place and they should be extended to within the UN system itself, because if even the organization that has established the sanctions can't uphold them, what message does that leaves to the other Member States?

Read more:
UN Watch - UN names North Korea chair of arms control agency

Korean Nukes and Sanctions in the Council - S/RES/1718 (2006)

S/RES/1718 (2006) was written in the context of the test of a nuclear weapon by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and as such contains a considerable imposing language towards the test, but with little change of the status quo. The tone of the resolution calls for a return to the level of negotiations that existed before the nuclear test, with calls for return to the NPT, six-party talks. There is the establishment of Sanctions Committee and some punitive elements, but the main elements relate to the return to the previous negotiations that were taking place.

Panel of Experts on DPRK Non-proliferation - S/RES/1985 (2011)

S/RES/1985 is one of document that extends the mandate of a bureaucracy inside the United Nations, while providing very little changes or guidance for the related organs. In this case, it deals with the Panel of Experts that addresses questions of nuclear non-proliferation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, even though these wordings are largely absent from the whole document. The documents is written in vague terms, mainly constructing their points from references to previous resolution instead of enunciating the mandate.