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AMBASSADOR THOMAS-GREENFIELD: I came here on the heels of Prime Minister Kishida’s very successful official visit to Washington, where he spoke to the Congress and gave an extraordinarily effective speech that, again, highlighted the strength of our bilateral relationship, outlining the areas of mutual interest we have – from DPRK to dealing with the South China straits and relations with China to issues of Women, Peace, and Security, climate change, youth, and, for the Japanese, the abductee issue. So it was, again, a very useful visit.

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QUESTION: Ambassador, Mainichi newspaper. Speaking of the DPRK, it will most likely be the end of the month, the Panel will expire. So is it possible some [inaudible] target which groups and [inaudible] the situation?

AMBASSADOR THOMAS-GREENFIELD: That’s been the most-asked question that I’ve received both in the Republic of Korea and here. And let me just start by saying how disappointed we were that Russia vetoed the resolution that would have extended the Panel of Experts. This Panel has been operating for 15 years; it has provided insight, analysis, and information on what is happening inside of DPRK as it relates to enforcement of sanctions and activities within the DPRK that goes against Security Council sanctions resolutions. So Russia’s decision to veto and China’s decision to abstain I think sent a chill across the community.

That said, we are looking at other options. Of course, the Panel of Experts would have been the best option; it’s worked for 15 years. But we’re looking at other options that can fill that gap. One would be to have the General Assembly pass a resolution that calls for the Panel of Experts; secondly, to have the Secretary-General call for reports as part of monitoring the sanctions regime; and then third, there are possibilities of bringing in outside think tanks, research entities to do that type of research. We are working closely with both the Republic of Korea and Japan and other likeminded countries to come up with some creative ideas on how we might be able to move this forward.

I’ve been asked, well, China and Russia won’t be a part of it, and that’s not surprising; it’s not expected that they would be part of it. Russia does not want reporting of its activities that have broken sanctions with the DPRK. They have a relationship of mutual support where they’re getting arms from the DPRK, they’re providing the DPRK with oil as well as with access to technology that is being used to help them continue to produce weapons of mass destruction.

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QUESTION: Just on this point on negotiations, I think when you met the families of the abductees yesterday, the brother of Megumi Yokota, I think he said something to you along the lines of we need to do more to put pressure on North Korea. And he sort of gave the example of like the last two times that North Korea came to the table were when Bush sort of labeled them a threat, labeled them this axis of evil, and then the last time when the discussions with Trump started with him threatening them. I don’t know. I guess the point he was trying to say was we need to be harder, we need to threaten, we need to be tougher to bring them to the negotiating table. Is that something that you think can work, that you would pursue?

AMBASSADOR THOMAS-GREENFIELD: We – we’ve tried both, as you’ve just said, and we’ll keep trying. And I really appreciated hearing from family members there, their thoughts on what needs to be done to continue to pressure the DPRK. But I think we’ve used both. We’ve used carrots and we’ve used sticks. We’ve offered humanitarian assistance. I heard from escapees the extent to which people are starving. One of the escapees that I met in the Republic of Korea told me his father starved to death, and one shared with me that she lived on a meal of nothing but potatoes. And so as we were sitting there having a meal, she couldn’t eat potatoes.

So we’re offering humanitarian assistance. We, again –  the doors are open for the carrots, but we’ve also been clear with the sticks. We have very strong sanctions on the DPRK, and we will continue to hold them to those sanctions. Both Russia and China presented a resolution in the Security Council to provide humanitarian assistance by lifting of sanctions, and for those who think sanctions don’t work, the reason they’re doing that is because the sanctions are working.

So we will continue to look at other ways to ramp up that pressure.

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QUESTION:  Just simple two questions about North Korea. We’re here, so we care about the threat that’s coming from North Korea [inaudible] Japan, South Korea, and the United States. But do you feel at the United Nations, like, this essence of threat – concerns are well-shared among other likeminded nations? And another question is of the options that you are talking about – about the monitoring the system – do you think is it going to be some kind of a precedence for a reform that’s needed at the United Nations?

AMBASSADOR THOMAS-GREENFIELD: In terms of other nations, yes, they care. We generally will get 13 votes when we get votes on DPRK. So Russia vetoes, China abstains, or they both will veto, but there will generally be 13 votes to condemn. We’ve been able to get likeminded to do press stakeouts with us. So there is concern about DPRK and there is concern that the threat that they pose to this region is a threat globally. So again, Russia is isolated on this one, except for China.

The second question, I don’t know, to be honest. We’re continuing to look at how the Security Council, the UN can be reformed and made fit for today’s world. We know that the Security Council as it exists does not reflect the realities of the world that exists today. You have five permanent members who are – as we have been referred to – the victors in World War II. And we’ll have a country like Ethiopia say: We were a victor too; you didn’t include us. And the President has been clear that we should have additional permanent and non-permanent members, and among those permanent members should be a country from Africa. So how we look at the future of the UN to ensure that it’s more effective is a work in progress, but it’s one that we very honestly have been engaged on for the past two years. And I think the momentum is building for us to start to move forward on some of the reforms.

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Source: U.S. Mission to the United Nations

Speaker: Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (UN)

Format: Press Conference

Link to Original Source