UNITED NATIONS - A report from a UN panel that monitors compliance with sanctions on North Korea showed more than 100 countries may not be doing enough to implement the punitive steps. The latest report to the UN Security Council from the Panel of Experts on North Korea, obtained by Reuters, said 111 of the 192 UN member states - mostly developing nations - had not submitted reports on their implementation of the council's two sanctions resolutions against North Korea. Those resolutions, adopted in 2006 and 2009 in response to Pyongyang's two nuclear tests, restricted arms deals, banned trade in technology usable in nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, called for travel bans and asset freezes and banned North Korean imports of luxury goods. Some 30 countries submitted reports on their implementation of the first sanctions resolution, number 1718, but not the second, number 1874. "Basically what this tells us is there's a lot more work that needs to be done to implement the DPRK (North Korea) sanctions," a Security Council diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Another envoy agreed. "Often developing countries simply don't have the resources to implement the sanctions properly," he said, adding this created potential weak spots and openings for countries like North Korea, Iran and others to skirt UN sanctions. US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the sanctions have been successful, as shown by several seizures of banned goods Pyongyang attempted to transfer to other states. "As with any sanctions regime, we can improve implementation and the panel's report offers some strong and useful recommendations to strengthen the sanctions regime," Toner said.
