US envoy to UN to visit Korean border, North Korean defectors

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations will travel to the heavily armed Korean border and meet North Korean defectors in South Korea, her office said on Monday, amid faltering U.N. efforts to ensure sanctions enforcement against the North.
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s trip, set for April 14-20, came after Russia rejected the annual renewal of the multinational panel of experts which has over the past 15 years worked on the implementation of U.N. sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo criticised Moscow’s veto and China’s abstention, which experts said would undermine the sanctions enforcement, with a South Korean envoy likening it to “destroying a CCTV to avoid being caught red-handed.”
Thomas-Greenfield’s trip, which will also include a stop in Japan, was meant to advance bilateral and trilateral cooperation on the sanctions and beyond, U.S. mission to the U.N. spokesperson Nate Evans said.
Both South Korea and Japan are currently members of the Security Council.