Nikki Haley accuses Russia of ‘cheating’ and helping North Korea avoid UN sanctions

The US ambassador to the UN says Russia can no longer be trusted

Nikki Haley has accused Russia of “cheating” and helping North Korea skirt strict United Nations placed on them for their nuclear development activities.

The US ambassador to the UN was speaking at a Security Council meeting when she made the accusation in light of signs Pyongyang was still developing its nuclear weapons programme.

Russia and China had also requested an easing of sanctions on North Korea as an inducement for halting weapons development and maintenance.

"Its violations are not one-offs. They are systematic. The United States has evidence of consistent and wide-ranging Russian violations,” Ms Haley said.

Ms Haley cited the 12 June summit between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore as a sign of progress but said the talks were “difficult, sensitive” and need time to work.

“The Trump-Kim summit has set us on the path towards complete denuclearisation. But we are not there yet. And until we get there, we must not ease the powerful worldwide sanctions that are in place,” she said.

The alleged violations include ship-to-ship transfers of oil, coal, and other goods.

Since 2006, the UN has placed increasingly more strict bans or caps on the import and export of any textiles, seafood, petrol, and financial services.

Ms Haley also accused Moscow of not only looking the other way while its citizens and companies engage in activities banned by sanctions but also of trying to cover up sanctions violations "whether they're committed by Russia or citizens of other states”.

She claimed a report authored by an independent party, detailing sanctions violations, had been “tainted” by Russia and the US has stopped publication of it.

Ms Haley said: "Russia must cease its violations of North Korea sanctions. It must end its concerted effort to cover up evidence of sanctions violations."

Ms Haley did not accuse China of the same alleged violations, however.

Chinese ambassador to the UN Ma Zhaoxu said the country implements sanctions on North Korea and warned that confronting Pyongyang would be a "dead end."

"Resorting to force will bring nothing but disastrous consequences," Mr Ma told the council.

The US-Russia disagreement is not new in the Security Council, particularly on matters concerning North Korea and Syria.

Ms Haley said the council can “no longer...take Russia’s word that it shares this objective” of complete denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula, as was thought before on previous unanimous votes to impose sanctions.

“Russia must now demonstrate by its deeds that it shares our objectives,” Ms Haley said.

Last week, the White House reported having received a letter from Mr Kim regarding a potential second meeting with Mr Trump.

Details have not yet been made public, but White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it was “warm” and “positive”.

Ms Sanders pointed to a recent military parade held in Pyongyang as a “sign of good faith” in the denuclearisation talks because it did not feature any long-range missiles as Mr Kim has had before, adding it was “a continued commitment to focus on denuclearisation of the peninsula”.

The president was criticised for the lack of concrete agreements to come out of the Singapore summit.